Ascher Marks

The Eagles’ loss to San Francisco in January kicked off a loud offseason for the team.

Over the last five months, Philadelphia has had to move on from star receiver A.J. Brown and had its quarterback Jalen Hurts be the centerpiece of an article shining light on the team’s locker room issues. The Eagles are looking to leave this drama behind them with the upcoming start of the 2026 season.

While this offseason exposed more of the Eagles’ locker room relationships, the roots of these issues go back much further. A.J. Brown began voicing his frustrations almost two years ago about the stagnant offense. His comments were taken, at the national media level, as a disgruntled receiver who wanted the ball more.

“Brown was an emotional guy, so he voiced his displeasure,” Andrew Porter of WIP Radio said. “He was the one who seemed negatively affected, at least publicly.”

Brown remained consistent in his criticism of Hurts and the offense over the course of the 2024 and 2025 seasons. His public comments came to a head when rumors started swirling at the NFL Draft Combine, and then ESPN’s Tim McManus wrote an article highlighting that Brown was not the only one frustrated. While this was new information for the masses, local beat reporters had been aware of the friction.

“An article like that validates for a broad segment of the population things that those of us around the team a lot have been writing,” Michael Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer said. “It was not a secret that A.J. Brown was not the only member who wasn’t thrilled with the passing game.”

This was not to say that the Eagles had a completely divided locker room as Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeffery Neiburg clarified. Neiburg echoed the same sentiments of frustrations, but that Brown, while well-liked in the building, simply had different motivations.

“I think A.J. gets wrongfully portrayed as a locker room cancer,” Neiburg said. “He obviously wasn’t shy about the things that he wanted, and he felt that the Eagles were not the place where his talents could be maximized.”

With Brown now out of the locker room and despite his popularity, the consensus has been that the team is just happy to be done with that layer of drama. That does not make the Jalen Hurts side of things go away, however. Hurts is going to be paired with yet another offensive coordinator this year, and the comments about him are not going to go away until he steps onto the field.

 The McManus article publicized Hurts’ tendency to be rigid with playcalling and his perception in the locker room, from how others view him and how he views himself.

“Jalen admires Michael Jordan, and wants to emulate him, and that sounds great in theory but it’s harder to come off that way when you’re not the best player at your position,” Sielski said. “He grew up a Texas high school star quarterback. Those kinds of guys are kings from the moment they’re 15 or 16, and you can think of yourself that way.”

Sielski would go on to explain that this is not an attack on Hurts, but still the root of issues within the locker room. Hurts’ football life has been met with little adversity. Along with his high school career, he won a National Championship and a Heisman Trophy in college, and won a Super Bowl and finished second in MVP voting in the NFL. That success has made it hard for Hurts to look inward and prompted others to make comments publicly.

All of the chatter over the offseason has set up for a really interesting and important 2026 season for Hurts. He has one more year of guaranteed money after this season, and there has not been talk of an extension at this point. General Manager Howie Roseman set the precedent that he is willing to move on from key pieces when he traded away Carson Wentz and fired Doug Pederson only a few years removed from winning the Super Bowl.

“I think this is obviously a huge year for Jalen Hurts,” Neiburg said. “They didn’t extend him, and I don’t think the Eagles will hesitate to move on from him if they feel like he is not the right quarterback to deliver another Super Bowl.”

“I think if you ask Jalen, I don’t think he feels like he needs to prove anything to anybody,” Porter said. “But past success doesn’t equal future success, and they [Eagles] understand that, so if they can improve at the position that’s always the goal.”

The Eagles are not satisfied with just winning. They are constantly chasing the next championship and look to do so by any means necessary.

“There is as much pressure inside that building to win a Super Bowl as there is outside,” Sielski said. “It leads to potential decisions and status uncertainty that wouldn’t exist with other franchises.”

Sielski would go on to explain that if the offense and Hurts continue to struggle, there is a real possibility that the Eagles could move on from the quarterback. The organizational philosophy is to make moves too early rather than too late, making it crucial for Hurts to adapt and succeed this season.