Philadelphia Eagles: Pop your corn for the A.J. Brown revenge game

As you probably already know, the Philadelphia Eagles – and the 31 other teams – have announced their schedule for the forthcoming NFL season.

The schedule, which once again features 17 games and takes a tour through the AFC South, has a second-place finisher’s strength and, honesty, falls pretty well in Philly’s favor. The Birds get two gimme games in their first four weeks versus the Detroit Lions and the Jacksonville Jaguars, have their bye in Week 7, and get one more game at home than on the road. While going on a three-game road trip from Week 14-16 isn’t ideal, at least Philly largely avoids uber short weeks, as the schedule only has one stretch, from Week 8-9 with only four days off, and it’s coming directly off the bye with the second game against the expected-to-be-bad Houston Texans.

12-5? 11-6? I don’t want to be too much of a homer, but goodness, this looks pretty good indeed.

So, with the schedule now released, which games should fans circle on their calendar as event viewing? Game 4 versus the Jacksonville Jaguars? While it’ll be nice to see Doug Pederson back at the Linc, that feels like an easy W. How about Colts Week, which falls in Week 11? Personally, I’m very excited for that game, but alas, it’s on the road, which sucks some of the fun from the festivities. No, the non-division game that should provide the most intrigue has to be when the Tennessee Titans land at the Linc to faceoff against their former franchise wide receiver, A.J. Brown.

A.J. Brown will want a big game for the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 13.

If the Tennessee Titans valued A.J. Brown as much as the third-year wide receiver valued himself after three very good NFL seasons, there’s a very good chance the two sides would still be together now and for years to come.

I mean, think about it; even Brown suggested that his problem with his former organization wasn’t how he was used, how the Mike Vrebal’s offense ran, or how many targets he was thrown by quarterback Ryan Tannehill, but instead how much general manager Jon Robinson was willing to pay his top wide receiver, which was less than $20 million per season according to The Tennessean. Had Robinson come correct with a deal in-line with the ones handed out to Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill, the two sides would have likely struck some sort of agreement, but instead, Tennessee felt confident enough in their evaluations and player development staff to swap out one wide receiver on a rookie-scale contract for another.

So far, that decision wasn’t aged particularly well, as Titans fans already miss Brown, and his replacement, Treylon Burks, had his first day of camp cut short due to a lack of conditioning, but we won’t really know who won the deal, at least initially, until the live bullets start to fly later this calendar year.

By the end of Week 13, I think we’ll have a pretty good idea.

Joining a Philadelphia Eagles offense with a collegiate wide receiver as his head coach and primary play-caller, Brown should see his strengths played upon in an offensive role tailor-made for what he does best. He’ll have to block from time to time in the run game, sure, but Nick Sirianni will mostly utilize Brown as a downfield threat who draws away the attention of opposing defensive coordinators both to pick up yardage and as a decoy to open up plays underneath.

Certainly Brown will be an asset to the Eagles in every game he appears this fall, but in none more so than when his former team comes to town, as he’ll not only have valuable insight into what the Titans want to do, but also know how to beat their secondary after years of going against them in practice. He knows how to work against Kristian Fulton, who is expected to be the team’s top cornerback with Jackrabbit Jenkins still a free agent, faced off against 2021 first-round pick Caleb Farley in camp, and could even work against Elijah Molden in the slot if he advocates for Sirianni to play him there, as Brown could body up on the soon-to-be second-year third-round pick out of Washington.

Really, the only corner on the roster Brown hasn’t taken on is 2022 second-round pick Roger McCreary, but he’s a smaller corner with T-Rex arms who will struggle to hold down one of the stockiest receivers the NFL has to offer.

Yeah, I’ll take that one.

Are the Philadelphia Eagles guaranteed to win in Week 13? No, not necessarily, the Tennessee Titans are a very good team, and if Derek Henry can go, he’ll give players like Jordan Davis a run for their money but do you know what? If A.J. Brown takes his contract situation personally and turns in one of his signature 100-plus yard games, I’ll pick the Eagles in that matchup every single time.