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After a Long and Loud Sip of Water, Jalen Hurts Addresses the A.J. Brown Situation
By Matt Schultz
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The NFL offseason is barely at its midpoint, and the A.J. Brown rumor mill continues to churn at full-blast. After months of cryptic messaging, Patriots trade rumors, and TMZ-covered wedding snubs, Jalen Hurts talked on Wednesday about his relationship with A.J. after taking a long, mic’d up sip of water:
“Picked the right question to sip on. (everyone laughs) No, I think for us, you know, we’re focused on learning the offense. It really doesn’t change in terms of our approach to improve. You know, there’s an ‘if’ obviously been lingering, a lingering thing, but nothing can replace all the greatness that we achieved together.… Nothing’s changed since we last spoke at the end of the season, we’re really good and I saw how beautiful the pictures came out at his wedding, I’m very happy for him and his wife and his family and it’s a beautiful thing, to step into covenant, so I was very excited and congratulatory towards that.”
I like Jalen’s approach here. Seems to me he’s being a pretty normal guy and acting normally about this whole thing. The covenant comment isn’t normal – I’ve never heard a wedding described that way. That’s a bit odd, sure. But for Jalen, I’m saying, this is pretty standard stuff. I like that he’s not being cryptic or weird about the AJ situation, or talking in vague Instagram-caption-ass platitudes the way he does 95% of the time. He seems genuinely enthused about the new offense and working with Sean Mannion. He knew he’d have to answer questions about A.J., and he did it earnestly with a bit of levity mixed in there. It’s solid stuff. Overall, I give his answers an A- (he gets knocked slightly for the covenant remark).
In other news on the A.J. front, it sounds like the Eagles and Patriots may be further away from a deal than previously thought:
“I just don’t know that it’s gonna be like, snap your fingers and the deal is done. The two sides are where they had been, which is the Eagles wanting a first-round pick in 2027. The Patriots, the most likely destination — we’ll see if someone else arises, but the Patriots are the most likely destination – not being willing to give up a first-round pick as of right now. That means they’re not particularly close, and yeah, there’s a chance this could drag on for the foreseeable future.”
Damn. Could be a long summer of A.J. Brown rumors. Jalen Hurts might need a bigger cup of water to loudly slurp… 400 fluid ounces… Big-ass bucket…
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…)