Eagles

Unsurprisingly, A.J. Brown Dominated on Slants and Go Routes in 2022

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 15th, 2023 · 10:18 AM EDT

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Pro Football Focus released their grades for wide receivers based on route type. A.J. Brown finished #1 in slant running, grading out as a 97 and beating Amari Cooper and Stefon Diggs.

Via Lauren Gray:

The fourth-year wideout saw 34 targets on slants last year — 10 more than any other player at the position — and he caught 26 of them for a position-leading 386 yards.

In all, 19 of his slant catches went for a first down, and he turned 10 into explosive gains of 15 or more yards. He finished the year averaging 7.72 yards per route run on slants, a full yard more than the next-closest wide receiver.

That’s wild. You knew Brown was a sure bet on slants, but those numbers really expand on the story. For some context, he had more yards just catching slants than Nelson Agholor, Van Jefferson, and Kyle Pitts had all season long. It’s ridiculous. And his 34 targets on slants were more than most running backs got all year long, even the RB1s on a lot of teams. Mecole Hardman, who played eight games this season, was only targeted 34 times total.

Brown also finished second in go routes, grading out as a 96.6. How many times did we see Jalen Hurts just loft beautiful balls down the sideline for A.J. to go up and attack? It was brilliant to watch and really helped Hurts open up his passing game by having a trusted target who could win a 50/50 battle or sometimes beat two guys at the same time:

A.J. Brown’s game vs. the Steelers will forever go down in history:

– 6 REC
– 156 YDS
– 3 TDs#Eagles | @1kalwaysopen_ 🥶 pic.twitter.com/G4xMzKmTOf

— Word On The Birds (@WordOnTheBirds) June 4, 2023

Best Eagles receiver since Terrell Owens.