Listening to maybe the greatest running back in Eagles history talk about maybe the greatest receiver in Eagles history gives you a pretty good sense of why the Eagles are 11-2, have won nine straight games and are headed to the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
Saquon Barkley didn’t know A.J. Brown before he signed here in March. It didn’t take long before he realized what makes him so special.
“I think he's a great leader,” Barkley said at his locker Thursday. “That's something that you don't know walking into the door being a new guy here. But from the second I was able to meet him and (have) conversations with him, the way that he carries himself, the way that he works, it’s rare to see a guy that talented and have the accolades that he’s had and accomplished the things that he's accomplished still coming with the same mindset and the work ethic that he has.
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“I'm a big fan of A.J. I've been vocal about that and happy to have him as my teammate.”
Brown has had the two-best seasons by a receiver in Eagles history, with 1,496 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2022 and 1,456 yards and seven TDs last year.
And Barkley has already shattered LeSean McCoy’s single-season rushing record and is on pace to break Eric Dickerson’s 40-year-old NFL single-season rushing record.
“He works hard, he puts a lot of effort in this, and (if he didn’t) he wouldn't go out there and ball out. Obviously, wide receivers might have a preconceived notion of them, how people view them, but I think our relationship, but you can't hear anyone in this locker room say anything negative about that guy.”
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Even though Brown would like more targets and more catches, he’s been extremely complimentary of Barkley, the centerpiece of an offense that’s got the 6th-most rushing attempts by any NFL team since 1988.
You won’t find any jealousy or ill will from Brown, whose targets have dropped by 26 percent per game, toward Barkley, who’s on pace for 385 touches.
Barkley says praise from Brown means a lot but isn’t surprising.
“We’re teammates, you know?” he said. “We want to see everybody succeed. At the same time, we all know the type of caliber player he is and the things he's able to accomplish. Would he want to do more for the team? Of course, but it’s not coming from a selfish way at all. From being able to sit down and have those conversations with him, and get to know him personally, I know it's not at all.”
Barkley is averaging 125 yards per game and Brown 84. The only team in NFL history with a running back over 120 yards per game and a receiver over 80 yards per game for a full season is the 1997 Lions with Barry Sanders (128) and Herman Moore (81).
Remember, Barkley only played with one 1,000-yard receiver in six years with the Giants, and that was Odell Beckham Jr., who had 1,052 yards in 2018, Barkley’s rookie year.
So Brown must look like Superman to him.
“He's a freak of nature,” Barkley marveled. “He weighs the same as me. He's bigger than me. And he can move like me. I just can't run routes like him.
“The most impressive thing about A.J. to me is every time he catches the ball, the ball does not move at all. He has some of the most impressive hands I’ve ever seen. I kind of knew that even in New York, just watching film and seeing how he operates. Me and Daniel (Jones) used to talk about that a lot, actually. But he's a heck of a player, a Hall of Fame-caliber player and excited to have him on my team.”
Barkley said his relationship with all the receivers is terrific and said all any of them want is to win football games whatever it takes.
“Smitty, A.J., Jahan (Dotson), all those guys have been super supportive and we sit here and say what the standard is and what we want to accomplish and that's winning football games,” he said. “So we're not sitting at the lunch table talking about, ‘Oh we need to throw the ball more.’ Our focus is winning football games and we're 11-2 right now.”
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