The Eagles lost in an ugly game to the Giants Thursday night and afterward, wide receiver A.J. Brown was asked about a meeting between himself, Jalen Hurts, and Saquon Barkley earlier in the week — a meeting widely reported on and even briefly addressed by the other two guys. Brown coyly replied that he didn’t recall such a meeting, and media and fan speculation ran wild for the next 13 hours.
The WR didn’t wait a week this time before clearing the air, and tweeted out Friday afternoon that their
conversation wasn’t as reflected in the question.
The problem with Brown’s explanation, is that it doesn’t really go along with what was initially reported or already commented on by both Barkley and Hurts.
The initial report by Jimmy Kempski said that the three Eagles players had a positive conversation that “lasted a couple hours.” Barkley was asked the next day whether the report was accurate, and he acknowledged that, “Yeah, we had a conversation,” but didn’t want to get too much into it.
BARKLEY: “I felt like that conversation is meant to stay between us, but the focus was all about the team. I think it was a good thing.”
Hurts was also asked about it on Wednesday, and briefly touched on what they spoke about.
HURTS: “It’s just us talking about the collective, talking about taking ownership for what we can, and talking about how we move forward as a team so we continue to find ways to win games.”
Hurts didn’t want to make their conversation a storyline on a short week, so he didn’t want to elaborate more, simply noting that it was just teammates being teammates.
The conversation that Barkley and Hurts are referring to doesn’t sound like the same casual chat Brown recalls having on the way to his car. At this point, the details of whichever conversation don’t really matter, and the fact that the three aren’t having regular meaningful conversations when the offense is struggling so much probably says more about the status of the group more than anything else.
