A.J. Brown missed significant practice time in training camp with a hamstring injury, but the Eagles receiver insists he’ll be in the lineup come Thursday in the season opener against the Cowboys.
“Hell, yeah,” Brown said emphatically, via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Brown, who previously has had soft-tissue injuries, left practice early with an injury Aug. 1. The Eagles never indicated his absence from practice was anything other than precautionary.
He apparently returned to practice Sunday, though it is unknown how much he did since a practice report was not required.
Brown missed three games last season with a hamstring injury, and the Eagles went 1-2 in those games.
He has 261 catches for 4,031 yards and 25 touchdowns in three seasons in Philadelphia, while adding 25 receptions for 309 yards and three touchdowns in seven postseason games with the Eagles.
Earlier this month, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said of Micah Parsons, “11 is a Cowboy.”
Now? Not.
“I can’t say I was completely surprised, but I definitely didn’t think he was going to get traded,” Prescott told reporters on Sunday regarding the Parsons trade, via Ali Jawad of ALLDLLS.com. “Just with the way our negotiations went down, and to some extent it seemed like it got personal on their end. So, that’s why I wasn’t surprised.”
Prescott stopped short of parroting the party line that Parsons being gone could make the Cowboys better.
“I’m not going to say we’re better,” Prescott said, via Todd Archer of ESPN.com. “We’ve got to go out there and prove it. We had to prove it even if he was on this team, so I’m not going to say that by any means.”
Prescott then added something that underscores the perception (as mentioned by former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Friday’s PFT Live) that Parsons possibly wasn’t the leader the Cowboys needed him to be.
“I know what adding a guy like Kenny Clark, adding a true leader, a real man that’s going to only elevate this team, who’s been a Pro Bowl player and is excited about being here [means],” Prescott said, per Archer.
We don’t want to read too much into that quote. But the words can’t be ignored. The situation got to the point that Parsons didn’t want to be in Dallas. And it appeared that he’d rely on his back injury to justify not playing, until he got the trade he wanted.
Either way, it’s done. And, with Parsons now on the Packers, a reunion is looming quickly.
“He got paid very well and great for him and his family,” Prescott said. “And we’ll see him here in about a month.”
Four weeks, to be precise. On Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock.
Perhaps the Cowboys are learning not to drag their feet when it comes to keeping key players.
As first reported by Jay Glazer of Fox and confirmed by others, the Cowboys have signed cornerback DaRon Bland to a four-year extension.
Bland, a fifth-round pick in 2022 from Fresno State, was entering the last year of his rookie contract. He was due to earn $5.346 million in 2025.
The four-year contract, via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, has a base value of $92 million. (We’ll get the full details.) If accurate, it’s a new-money average of $23 million. That would put him at No. 5 among all cornerbacks. The five-year total value from signing is $19.46 million.
Bland had an All-Pro season in 2023, with nine interceptions and an all-time record five pick-sixes. Of course, that may have had something to do with the guy the Cowboys opted to trade, not pay.
As former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said on Friday’s PFT Live, “If you look at all those interceptions that their DBs were making, [DaRon] Bland and [Trevon] Diggs and you’re intercepting them and running back for touchdowns . . . look what’s going on around the quarterback on those throws. Micah Parsons is the guy causing all the problems, and those guys are hard to come by.”
But, hey, maybe Bland will also be expected to help stop the run.
The impact was devastating. But the hit was clean.
If anyone blames former Jets linebacker Mo Lewis for blowing up Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe and opening the door to the Tom Brady era, they shouldn’t.
Lewis, for his part, blames Bledsoe.
Via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com, Lewis finally addressed the matter for the new book from Gary Myers, Brady vs. Belichick.
"[Bledsoe] just signed a $100 million deal to be what type of quarterback?” Lewis told Myers. “A passing quarterback, correct? Had he not got outside the pocket and ran with the ball, would we be talking about this? Who caused the event? The person who was with the ball.
“Now he’s doing what he didn’t sign up for. He signed up to be a passing quarterback. What do I do? I stop the people with the ball. It’s just another play for me. But it’s a different play for him.”
As explained by Cimini, Lewis has avoided the spotlight since retiring. Former teammates say Lewis feels slighted because he’s remembered only for the hit on Bledsoe.
“It’s really irrelevant to me,” Lewis told Myers. “It was just another play to me. To you all, it’s a big game-changing, history-changing play. I’ve never gone back to watch the play. If people want to talk about it, I don’t hide from it. But it has no importance to me.”
Lewis is right about the play. Watch it. Bledsoe leaves the pocket. He runs along the sideline. He seems to consider going out of bounds. He decides to try to gain a first down.
Lewis didn’t go in head first. He lowered a shoulder and put it into Bledsoe’s side. It was legal and clean.
He said he didn’t check on Bledsoe because he didn’t think anything of it.
“I’m not trying to be an asshole,” Lewis said. “I’m on the field. I’m not a doctor. I do not know the severity of that hit. It was just another hit. I’m a linebacker. I make tackles. I do not gauge how hard or how soft I hit a person. What you’re trying to do is make me see the future after the hit. I’m telling you, I’m not looking down the line. I’m just trying to stop him from getting a first down. Period.”
He should have said “exclamation point.” Because he’s right. Lewis did his job. Bledsoe put himself in harm’s way. He could have gone out of bounds. He could have slid. He could have fallen down.
Bledsoe took the hit. If he’d known what the consequences would be, he surely wouldn’t have done it.
That’s the real takeaway from the episode that happened nearly 24 years ago. Quarterbacks who take hits they don’t have to take are assuming the risk that the hit could, as it did for Bledsoe, shear a blood vessel in his chest and open the door for the next man up.
And if the next man up is good enough, the quarterback who took the hit may remain out long after he has healed.
Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones remains committed to the bit.
On Thursday, he justified trading linebacker Micah Parsons by explaining that the Cowboys need to stop the run. On Saturday, he reiterated the position during an appearance on NFL Network.
“Our player that we got is outstanding,” Jones said regarding defensive lineman Kenny Clark, via Tommy Yarrish of DallasCowboys.com. “We knew that, and he’ll immediately start making plays for us here when we get up there against those Philadelphia Eagles. But the most important thing is we really wanted to stop the run. And Micah’s a wonderful football player. We think this gives us a better chance to stop the run. Other teams knew that, and they threw the ball out quick and they ran against us when we had Micah and they’re really emphasizing pass rush.”
Still, when it’s time to pass, Micah brings the heat.
“The most important player on a football team is the quarterback,” former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said on Friday’s PFT Live. “The second most important player on a football team is the guy who can negatively affect the quarterback. And those guys are hard to come by, and ever since that guy has come into the league, he has been a dominant player.”
So now the Cowboys will have to hope they can muster a potent pass rush without Parsons. If they can’t, they won’t have to worry about whether they can stop the run.
