A.J. Brown drops ‘special’ take on Eagles player returning from gambling suspension

Head coach Nick Sirianni and the Philadelphia Eagles are currently in the midst of what figures to be a highly important offseason as for the future direction of the franchise following a wildly disappointing 2023-24 season. The Eagles started out 2023-24 red hot, much as they did the previous season, ultimately standing as the last undefeated team remaining several weeks into the year; however, ultimately, the team’s production fell off of a cliff, resulting in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild card round of the playoffs and generating calls for Sirianni’s name to be put on the hot seat.

One area where the Eagles figure to be getting a lot better this year is in the defensive backfield, as the team drafted star cornerback Cooper DeJean and also will be awaiting the return of former Indianapolis Colts cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, who the team signed after the 2022-23 season knowing he would miss the full ensuing year due to a gambling suspension but who is now ready to take the field for the first time in an Eagles uniform.

If his teammates’ compliments are any indication, Rodgers has been seizing the opportunity so far at Eagles’ practice camp, according to Philadelphia wide receiver AJ Brown.

“For a guy that has not played football for a year, coming back, he looks like he has been playing nonstop,” Brown said, via ESPN, per Michael David Smith of NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk. “He’s flying around, and he’s going to do special stuff for us this year.”  Rodgers is one of several players vying for the starting cornerback spot opposite Darius Slay in the Eagles’ defensive backfield.

Can the Eagles bounce back?

As previously mentioned, the Eagles’ 2023-24 season was an unmitigated disaster, at least considering the lofty heights the team had reach the year before. In 2022-23, Philadelphia was on top of the world, reaching the Super Bowl and nearly knocking off Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs when they got there.

This year, however, was a different story, as the team saw its defensive production spiral as the season progressed. Quarterback Jalen Hurts could not find much of any rhythm with his offensive teammates, and although the team started out the season with a lot of wins, it became evident very quickly that this was not the same Eagles team as the one the city fell in love with the previous campaign.

This year, the team has made great strides to add reinforcements, including bringing in star running back Saquon Barkley from the divisional rival New York Giants. Brown of course still profiles as one of the upper echelon receivers in the NFL and is capable of being the best player on the field on any given Sunday, and Hurts is still relatively young with room to improve on an up and down effort in 2023-24.

In any case, the Eagles’ 2023-24 season is slated to get underway in Brazil against the Green Bay Packers on Friday, September 6 before the home opener the following week vs the Atlanta Falcons.