For a team on a 9-game winning streak and with an 11-2 record headed into Week 15, the Philadelphia Eagles just can’t seem to get right.
The latest evidence of this was veteran edge rusher and NFL All-Pro Brandon Graham having to walk back comments he made on the tension between wide receiver A.J. Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts after Brown lashed out following a 22-16 win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 14 in which Hurts threw for just 108 yards.
Graham, who is out for the season with a torn triceps tendon, made comments about the relationship between Brown and Hurts during a weekly appearance on Monday night on “The Brandon Graham Show” on SportsRadio 94WIP in Philadelphia.
“The person that’s complaining needs to be accountable,” Graham said. “I don’t know the whole story, but I know that (Hurts) is trying and (Brown) could be a little better with how he responds to things. They were friends before this, but things have changed, and I understand that because life happens. But it’s the business side, that we have to make sure the personal doesn’t get in the way of the business.”
Graham ended up apologizing twice for his comments publicly, first to ESPN’s Tim McManus.
“I made a mistake and I assumed that it was something that it wasn’t,” Graham told McManus. “I just want to win so bad that I don’t just want to use the media when we need to talk about something and we can fix the problem ourselves. I didn’t add to it in a good light, so that’s my bad. I just assumed, and it made me out to look even worse because I had it all wrong and now people are going to run with that part. I really just want to win, man, and I want brothers to be able to just hash it out.”
Graham, a Super Bowl champion and former NFL All-Pro, is in his 15th season with the Eagles and apologized again on “The Morning Show With Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie” on 94WIP on Tuesday morning.
“I made the assumption,” Graham said on Tuesday. “I didn’t know all the details and I still don’t … Everything that I said, I didn’t want (Brown) to do, I did too (airing it out publicly to the media). All of us just want to win.”
Brown Criticized For Taking Beef With Hurts Public
While Brown’s criticism may have been fair, it’s hard to comprehend why his concerns weren’t raised behind closed doors and not aired out in the media.
“It comes off as being selfish,” Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe said on “The Nightcap” podcast on Monday. “And I don’t think that (Brown) is. I think he’s a competitor. He wants to contribute. I think he realizes, ‘In order for us to get to where we need to be, I’m going to have to catch more than three or four balls.'”
Brown, Hurts 2 of NFL’s Highest Paid Players
One might also think people being paid the exorbitant amount of money Brown and Hurts are would be able to handle any conflicts in private for the sake of team chemistry.
Brown and Hurts are playing on contracts currently valued at a combined $351 million. Hurts signed a 5-year, $255 million contract extension in April 2023 and Hurts signed a 3-year, $96 million contract extension in April 2024.
