A.J. Brown has led the Philadelphia Eagles in total targets in each of his three seasons with the team.
However, in the team’s 2025 season opener against the Dallas Cowboys, he wasn’t targeted at all in the first half.
That left many NFL fans and fantasy football managers wondering if Brown was actually playing after he missed time in training camp and the preseason with a hamstring injury.
Brown was, indeed, on the field. He showed that during the Eagles’ final drive of regulation, when he made an 8-yard catch that set Jalen Hurts up for a game-winning first-down run on third-and-1.
But over Hurts’ previous 22 passes, which included a few throwing opportunities vacated for scrambles, the quarterback did not target his 28-year-old weapon. Instead, Dallas Goedert, DeVonta Smith, Jahan Dotson, Kylen Granson and Saquon Barkley handled the receiving workload.
While Brown’s lacking production was conspicuous, it did not impact Philadelphia in the game’s early stages. The Eagles scored touchdowns on each of their three first-half possessions despite Brown’s first half no-show.
How rare was it for Brown not to get a first-half target? It was the first time since Brown’s Week 16 game against the New Orleans Saints in 2019 that he didn’t get one, per NFL reporter Ed Werder. That was when he was a rookie with the Tennessee Titans.
Brown avoided an ignominious mark by making his lone catch late in regulation. Across 91 career games played, he has only been held without a reception once. That came in a 2021 game against the Indianapolis Colts during which he played just eight offensive snaps before suffering a hamstring injury.
That said, Brown did match his career-low mark for targets with just one. The only other time he posted just one target in a game was in Week 18 of the 2023 NFL season. He played just 12 snaps in that contest, making one catch for nine yards as the Eagles rested their starters ahead of the postseason.
Brown has now logged one or fewer catches in 10 total regular-season games. The Eagles will look to get him more involved in Week 2 when they face the Kansas City Chiefs in a Super Bowl 59 rematch.
AJ Brown stats vs. Cowboys
In total, Brown finished the matchup with one catch on one target for eight yards in the fourth quarter.