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As the world turns, so does the news cycle. One story refuses to go away in Philadelphia, though, and it’s centered on A.J. Brown.
The receiver’s discontentment with his limited role in the Eagles’ offense has been a persistent storyline during the 2025 season, and while team leadership and even Brown himself downplays the seriousness of the matter, the issue refuses to fade away.
In a video that surfaced Tuesday night, Twitch streamer JankyRondo played a game of Madden NFL 26 on a livestream against a PlayStation user named imopen11 who was purportedly Brown, and asked him over in-game chat if everything was going well.
“Everything been good, though?” the streamer asked. “Everything been straight? Mental good? Kids good?”
“I mean, no,” the person replied, chuckling. “Where have you been? Family good? Yeah. Everything else? No. It’s been a s—show.”
The person who was purportedly Brown laughed his way through his response, seemingly at the absurdity of both the question and his frustrating reality. Later in the game, the same person offered advice to fans watching.
“If you got me on fantasy, man, get rid of me,” he said, laughing again.
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It’s worth noting that while the username — which included a revelation of his actual name on JankyRondo’s PlayStation Network friends tab as AJ Brown — suggested the person could be Brown, the receiver never appeared in the video.
Clips of the exchange spread virally across social media on Wednesday, trickling into Eagles coach Nick Sirianni’s meeting with reporters.
“I’m close to being done answering these questions with this,” Sirianni said, via ESPN. “He’s working hard and he is a big part of this game plan [for Sunday’s game against the Lions] and he’ll be a big part of the game plan going forward. He’s working like crazy when he’s here, and I’m excited to have him.”
When it comes to this persistent topic, Brown’s lack of production certainly doesn’t help matters. Over Brown’s last five games, he’s seen 35 targets, good for a satisfactory average of seven per game. He’s caught just 19 of them for 264 yards and two touchdowns, with nearly half of those yards and both scores coming in a 28-22 win over the Vikings in Week 7.
Even in that game, Brown appeared subdued when celebrating his first score, almost as if the entire ordeal has left him weary.
The ongoing drama inspired some to wonder whether the Eagles might trade Brown at the deadline, but once it passed and Brown remained an Eagle, general manager Howie Roseman succinctly explained why he wouldn’t send the three-time Pro Bowler elsewhere: “You just don’t get rid of guys like that.”
After the deadline passed, Brown played in Philadelphia’s low-scoring win over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night and was all but invisible, seeing two targets over the majority of the contest before a questionable fourth-down decision called for a deep shot to Brown that landed incomplete in the game’s final minute. He left Lambeau Field with two catches for 13 yards in the 10-7 triumph, adding fresh fuel to the long-lasting fire.
“If you look at how the game went, there were a lot of plays that are going to [Brown] that for different reasons don’t,” Sirianni explained Wednesday. “For instance, [DeVonta Smith]’s touchdown, that play is going to A.J.; they took it away, and [Hurts] threw it over the top. You can’t look at stats and just say this is what’s happening. You can’t paint the picture that way.”
Sirianni made a valid point with this response, a snapshot of the difficulty of evaluating a player’s importance or lack thereof in an offense. As the coach emphasized Wednesday, just because Brown isn’t racking up the gaudy numbers of the last three seasons — three straight 1,000-yard campaigns that included a trio of second-team All-Pro nods — it doesn’t mean he’s not important to their plans.
“A.J. Brown is one of the best receivers in the NFL, so of course we’re trying to get him involved in the game every single time,” Sirianni said.
Still, until Brown starts producing at the rate most have become accustomed, the narrative will persist — even in the largely lawless land of livestreaming.