The biggest storyline coming from the Week 13 game between the Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles revolves around wide receiver A.J. Brown playing his old team for the first time.
When asked about the trade from the Titans earlier in the week, Brown explained how he “won” upon getting dealt and signing an extension with the Eagles.
“Me personally, I feel like I won,” Brown said, per David Boclair of Sports Illustrated. “I say that because I changed my family’s life forever. That’s the goal, especially growing up where I’m from. Of course, I wanted to do great, and it comes out of great things. But that’s the reason we play the game.”
“Of course, I’ve come to peace about it,” he continued. “I’m with the Eagles. We’re 10-1. We’re doing a really good job here. Of course, early on I had mixed emotions, but I changed my family’s life forever. That was the goal.”
Now, a look at what else Brown and the Eagles had to say about the Titans.
HC Nick Sirianni on what he learned from Bengals-Titans
“You look at everybody’s game plan and look at what everybody’s doing and that’s what happens to our offense, too. You’ll have to be ready to get answers fixed that you didn’t have for the last game. We know that.
“Again, you still have to play. Again yes, it’s about putting the players in the best position, but it can’t just always be a copy-and-paste, that’s not how — because you don’t have the same players as Cincinnati, you have different strengths and weaknesses than the guys of Cincinnati. You look at it. You look at different things, but there’s a happy medium in there of you putting the guys in the right spot; you knowing how to coach those guys in that spot and then also what your guys can do.”
Sirianni on A.J. Brown facing Titans
“I think the constant reminder is, hey, this game is big to us because it’s our next one. This game is big to us because we don’t want to let each other down. You can’t ride the waves of the season. To answer your question, no. I don’t think you treat it any different with how you tell one player toward another player.
“What I said to [WR] Zach Pascal before we played Indianapolis is going to be similar things in my message to [WR] A.J. [Brown] this week. He doesn’t have to do any more than just go out there and be himself. He doesn’t have to press. He just has to go out there and do his job to the best of his ability with the attention to detail, and to go out there — because if you allow yourself — every week you can do that to yourself.
“I know there is no team for A.J. to go home to in Mississippi, but I’m going to New Orleans, and I am going to treat that bigger because I’m playing in front of them. Or now I’m going to play my former team here. Oh, now I’m going to play — I’m thinking of Ole Miss guys — now I’m going to play this team and that was my college roommate, and so now I have to get up for this one.
“If you just treat everyone the same, right, that’s the way to go. And then you don’t allow yourself to ride these waves of the season, because there is always going to be different schedules, there is going to be Thanksgiving one week and then there is going to be Christmas one week.
“You got to stay true to your process, and that’s the key. Because every game, the next game is always biggest game. We don’t want to let each other down, and so you got to prep for every game the same. But naturally human nature will take over, and that’s my job as a coach to make sure that he knows he doesn’t have to do anything more than just be A.J. Brown. That’s why he’s here. That’s why we traded for him, that’s why we paid him, because he’s a phenomenal player. Just go be yourself. You don’t have to do anything special because you’re special enough to go out there and play.”
Sirianni on going up against former Eagles DC Jim Schwartz
“We always want to know why you did this or why you did that. It would be similar, let’s say [Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Jonathan] Gannon gets a head coach job next year and we play them, it’s going to similar things there because you have intel.
“Obviously, I wasn’t here with [Titans Senior Defensive Assistant] Coach [Jim] Schwartz, and I have so much respect for Coach Schwartz. He’s a phenomenal defensive coach, defensive coordinator. But I wasn’t here with him. There are some people that were here with him, so you go back to these conversations.
“But you also understand that they know that on that side, right? That Coach Schwartz knows the information that we know. So, there will be some game within the game of trying to change it, trying to make you feel like — put a seed of doubt in your mind of what you know. So, we know it. This isn’t the first time we’ve went through that.
“Obviously, we went through that a couple weeks ago in Indy. We worked with [Colts Defensive Coordinator] Gus Bradley before, and he definitely did things to put seeds of doubt in our mind. That’s what good coaches do, like Gus Bradley and Coach Schwartz.”
Sirianni on what stands out about Titans' defense
“They have good players at each level. I think they’re really well coached. I think I said that to you guys already. Got a lot of respect for [Titans’ Head Coach] Coach [Mike] Vrabel. Obviously, a lot of respect for [Titans’ Defensive Assistant] Coach [Jim] Schwartz and their defensive coordinator also. They’re really good coaches and you always knew — when we play them twice a year, we always knew that team was going to be really well coached, really disciplined, really physical, right?
“Those were three knowns that you knew going into every one. So you needed to be physical and you needed to be disciplined and you needed to be — your job detail had to be very crisp and we had to do a good job putting the guys in position and making sure the detail was right.
“That’s the same thing we see. Then you get into their players, right, and you know that I was with [Titans DL] Denico Autry. I think a lot of him. I think he’s a really good player. [Titans OLB] Bud Dupree, [Titans DT Jeffery] Simmons. Those three guys are really good on the defensive line.
“Then you go into their secondary, you know, [Titans S Kevin] Byard has been good for a really long time. [Titans DB] Andrew Adams has made some plays. I enjoyed my time with him. I was bummed when we didn’t get to keep him through last year.
“You combine good coaching with good play makers, that’s why they’ve been who they’ve been under Coach Vrabel. So just a lot of play making ability and then also just tremendous coaching.”
Sirianni on what impresses him about Derrick Henry
“Shoot, he’s done this for a very long time. He’s big. Obviously really big, really fast, is able to get going downhill really quick and I always think they get good O-line play there as well.
“But he just has things you can’t coach. He’s got great vision. Not only can he lower his shoulder and break tackles, with being able to break arm tackles, stuff like that. Got a really good stiff arm, but also has speed to finish long runs.
“When you’re looking at backs and you’re looking at them in the draft process and they’ve got all those things, you’re like, man, this guy is a complete back, and he is, he’s a complete back that does a lot of things really well.”
WR A.J. Brown on trade from Titans
“Me personally, I feel like I won,” Brown said, per David Boclair of Sports Illustrated. “I say that because I changed my family’s life forever. That’s the goal, especially growing up where I’m from. Of course, I wanted to do great, and it comes out of great things. But that’s the reason we play the game.”
“Of course, I’ve come to peace about it,” he continued. “I’m with the Eagles. We’re 10-1. We’re doing a really good job here. Of course, early on I had mixed emotions, but I changed my family’s life forever. That was the goal.”
Brown on if facing Titans is personal
“It’s not personal at all. It’s another opportunity for me to play the game that I love,” he said. “We’ve been doing really good things here. We’re 10-1 here, and we’re trying to keep it going. It’s been everything I imagined.”
Brown on beef with Titans fans
“Oh, they hate me,” Brown said, per NFL Network’s James Palmer. “Part of it is my fault. I mean some people still love me, but I think the majority of their fans are out to get me. It’s a part of it though.”
DC Jonathan Gannon on what Bengals did to stop Henry
“They played well as a unit together. You talk about they kind of bottled him up pretty good. Run defense, it’s all 11, and they were fitting very well together. I thought [Bengals Defensive Coordinator] Lou [Anarumo] did a good job of changing up the spacing, their defensive coordinator. They have a good front, just like us.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage for the most part and didn’t let them get going. Then as you see, they possessed the ball on offense, so they kind of limited his touches there. It was really a low-possession type game that game, which Sunday night was a high-possession game. You just don’t know how the game is going to kick out.
“I think they played complementary football, Cincinnati. Kept them off the field and had some extended drives, and when he did get his touches, they did a good job, all 11, to really bottle him up and control the line of scrimmage and tackle him.
“I’ve played against this guy multiple times being in that division for three years with him, and he’s a tall order. He’s one the premier players in the world at his position, so we have our challenge cut out for us.”
OC Shane Steichen on Titans' defense
“Defensive line-wise, [Titans DT Jeffery] Simmons is a load up front. This is a physical group. I know I say this every week being a heck of a challenge, but this is a darn good defense that we got to be ready for. They do a nice job.
“Obviously, [Titans Head Coach Mike] Vrabel puts them in good positions, along with their defensive coordinator. They’re good on the back end. Obviously, they got [S Kevin] Byard back there. The two corners are solid. They’re sound in what they do and they’re a very physical football team that we got to be ready for.”
