As A.J. Brown walked out of the visiting locker room at Gillette Stadium on Thursday night, he had an unprompted message for a few reporters who were waiting in the hallway.
Brown called Joseph Ngata the star of the game.
In the Eagles’ 14-13 win over the Patriots in the second preseason game, Ngata had 5 catches for 88 yards to lead both teams. It was his best showing all summer — and he thanked Brown for his help.
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Brown, who was a first-time captain last season, is one of the leaders on the offensive side of the ball. And he was really into a big first-down catch from Ngata on Thursday.
Ngata said the one thing he has really been trying to work on all summer is his mentality and keeping his emotions in check.
“I’m just really emotional,” the second-year receiver said. “I really love football and I love to compete so sometimes I can be over the top. Just controlling my mentality, controlling what I can control, controlling my breathing, controlling my thoughts.”
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Ngata, 23, has been getting help from a bunch of different people on that mission. But one guy who has really helped is Brown, who has been taking the time to have extra chats with Ngata.
They talked the day before the game, twice on game day before kickoff and then a few times during Thursday evening between series.
“He just helped me calm down a little bit,” Ngata said. “Even during the game. It’s really nice having him out there.”
Most improved
After Thursday’s game, Nick Sirianni was asked to single out one player who has improved the most from last year.
His choice?
“I think Fred Johnson is continuing to develop as a really solid football player,” Sirianni said. “He works his butt off. He’s a big man, right? You see that, and it’s hard to get around him. He just continues to put the work in that he needs to put in to develop at his position. I’m really pleased with how Fred has worked, his toughness and just his ability to improve each day. You can see that, so I’m happy. You asked me for a guy, that’s the guy I’ll single out right there. I’m proud of Fred for all the work he’s put in to get himself to where he is right now.”
Johnson, 27, joined the Eagles’ practice squad in November of 2022 after previous stints with the Steelers, Bengals and Buccaneers. But he found a landing spot in Philly. Last summer, he impressed enough to make the roster and sign through the 2024 season. He has been the backup left tackle behind Jordan Mailata all summer.
Figuring it out
The Eagles have been blitzing a lot during training camp, which is actually good news for the Eagles’ offense. They really struggled to pick up blitzes in 2023 so they’re getting a lot of work against it in training camp.
Jalen Hurts is obviously a big key to stopping the blitz and linebacker Devin White shared a cool story after Sunday’s practice.
“I watched him today,” White said. “We put a new blitz in and it kind of worked a couple times. First thing he did was go stand by Vic and he asked him questions, like, ‘What is this?’ Because he gotta know as a quarterback.
“So you see your quarterback just eager for knowledge from a defensive coach and want to be able to pick it up and want to be able to see it. ‘All right, I need to get to this protection.’ Because at the end of the end of the day, we’r going against each other but we’re only here to make each other better.”
Earlier in his career, Hurts forged a strong relationship with former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. He always valued the perspective from a coach on the other side. So having a veteran coordinator like Fangio in the building might become a big resource for the Eagles’ starting quarterback.
Fangio’s exotic defense
Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata enjoyed going against a different defense at practice on Tuesday in New England. But the Eagles have been getting a ton of good work against Fangio all summer.
Like we mentioned, Fangio has been bringing plenty of pressure and Mailata called Fangio’s defense one of the “most exotic” in the league.
What’s the hardest part about facing Fangio’s unit?
“The hardest part of Vic’s defense is trying to uncover their disguise,” Mailata said. “They disguise everything so it’s really hard to know whether they’re bringing a CAT blitz — if you know what a CAT blitz is, that’s the corner — and even double linebacker blitzes. Just really the disguise and making everything look the same and very vanilla is the hardest part of playing against Vic. Because once you think you’ve nailed something, he brings out something else. So I’m excited.”
Tush Push here to stay
The Eagles have been using their Tush Push/Brotherly Shove with their backups in the preseason and — shocker — it hasn’t been as effective. Of course, we haven’t seen the starters rep the play yet this summer.
So it’s fair to wonder if it will work as well without Jason Kelce.
“Again, Jason is one piece of that puzzle,” Sirianni said. “Jalen is another huge piece of that puzzle. And then Landon (Dickerson) and the guards will be a huge piece of that puzzle. And the offensive line, right? And so you're just getting reps with guys that haven't got reps of it. So, we'll see. We'll see where that is. Obviously not giving any answers until we get out there and play a game.”
Chances are that the Eagles are still going to be good at the play. They have Hurts and Dickerson back and there’s no reason to think that Cam Jurgens at center and Mekhi Becton at right guard won’t be able to pull it off.
If there’s one thing the preseason has shown, though, is that it’s certainly not an automatic play.
“We haven't been successful with it, right?” Sirianni said. “You're seeing that it is a hard play. Like I'm glad they didn't take it out of the game because it's not just a gimme. It really shows you the talent of the guys that have been out there succeeding at that play for the past two and a half, three years, right?
“And so I feel like that should give you an appreciation of how good we've done it in the past. We'll see. We will continue to rep it, we’ll continue to walk through it. We'll see if we practice it. That was a discussion this morning if we needed to practice it. We'll go from there.”
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