PHILADELPHIA — For the third straight year, A.J. Brown, the city’s second-biggest diva, told his truth. As usual, that truth is, Jalen Hurts needs to throw him the ball.

Don’t blame Brown. He’s one of the four best receivers in the league and one of the three best receivers in Eagles history, and he’s getting just 6.6 targets a game, about one-third fewer than peers like Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase and CeeDee Lamb. “Swole Batman” is angry about it because he believes that the Eagles’ passing game will need to be better for the team to win in the playoffs ... and because he feels he’s being underutilized during a prime season in what Saquon Barkley on Thursday called a Hall of Fame career.

Brown should be angry, because divas get angry. It’s who they are. That self-importance, that pride, drives their greatness. Brown is simply acting true to his nature. Again.

After the 2022 season, Brown blew up on the sideline of a 31-7 playoff win over the Giants. Afterward, he denied his diva-dom: “I think that’s what you could describe as a diva, but I’m not that person.”

OK. But in 2023, after a teammate criticized Brown’s on-field antics during the Eagles’ late-season collapse, Brown effected a brief media boycott. He averaged 111.7 yards in the first nine games last season but about half that, 56.4 yards, in the last eight games.

Now, this.

It is who he is, and that’s OK.

As as soon as Brown arrived in Philly in 2022, Brown posted an “Always Open” sign on his locker, and it has remained there through his adventures in diva-ness, and it won’t ever come down, nor should it. His Instagram and Twitter/X handles are versions of “@1Kalwaysopen.” It’s not like he’s hiding it.

His latest whine for shine won’t hurt the team. In a ham-handed attempt at rebuking any inference that there is unrest among the players, Sirianni was getting down to “My Prerogative” during the open portion of Friday’s practice. It was an unnecessary exercise.

Hurts is beyond it, Barkley is above it, and it’s not as if A.J. is going to tank. Rather, he’s an excellent teammate. He’s tough, he’s professional, and he’s willing to block and run decoy routes ... but he wants to eat, and he can’t help but tell you about it. The Eagles knew this about him when they got him, and they don’t seem to mind it; they just gave him a three-year, $96 million extension.

Diva Central

Brown is just the latest in a long line of Philly prima donnas, which is ironic; the city fancies itself a blue-collar town, but it’s been Diva Central for decades. Brown isn’t even in the top five.

Chronologically:

Charles Barkley never missed (or misses) a chance to promote himself, and he routinely demeaned his teammates, once complaining that many were “wimps and complainers.” Allen Iverson? While his less gifted teammates rabidly worked on their games, Iverson notoriously considered practice beneath him.

Terrell Owens spiked the ball on the Cowboys’ star as a 49er, ripped teammate Donovan McNabb, fought teammate Hugh Douglas, and did sit-ups in the driveway as an Eagle. It took him three tries to reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he’s such a diva that he refused to attend the induction ceremonies because he was upset that he wasn’t a first-ballot inductee. DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy constantly celebrated themselves as Eagles. And, finally, Joel Embiid hijacked the name, “The Process,” before he’d even played an NBA game, and, according to teammates and league sources, he doesn’t show up for team meetings and team buses on time.

Philly’s got more divas than the Grammys. Brown’s just the latest.

You know what all of these divas have in common? They were great. Brown is great. The diva stuff, well, that’s just the cost of doing business.

BG, Hurts on point

Brandon Graham told his truth, too, when, on his Monday radio show, he said regarding the fallout of Brown’s postgame comments:

“I know [Jalen Hurts] is trying and [Brown] could be better with how he responds to things. They were friends, but things have changed.”

Graham has seen a shift in the relationship between Brown and Hurts since Brown arrived three seasons ago. That’s not unusual. Relationships evolve. Hurts himself acknowledged that Wednesday when he said of his friendship with Brown: He still has a lot of love for Brown, but “the dynamic has clearly changed,” and he offered the obvious explanation: “He damn sure wants the ball.”

Since Brown’s clear and pointed complaint about Hurts’ passing this season, and since Graham’s clear and pointed evaluation of men with whom he’s spent about 54,000 hours the past three years, Brown and Graham and Hurts and Sirianni have practiced modified damage control in an attempt to minimize any distraction this latest kerfuffle might create on the eve of a huge game against the Steelers on Sunday.

After his radio show, Graham told ESPN.com that he made a “mistake.” Whatever. Ignore the spin.

These are the realities of the moment. There is no ambiguity.

A.J. unplugged

Brown knew what he was saying. It’s his sixth NFL season and his third in Philly, so he knew how it would be received.

To review:

After Sunday’s game, as he took off his uniform, Brown listened to reporters ask his locker neighbor, fellow star receiver DeVonta Smith, if Smith was satisfied with the way the offense was functioning, having leaned on Barkley for a ninth straight win in a ninth straight week. Smith said he was not. Brown looked over and smiled at the question (and the questioner, me) and Smith’s answer. Brown knew what was coming after he’d showered and dressed.

When Brown later was asked an open-ended question regarding what the offense need to improve upon, he replied, “Passing.” Asked again: “Passing?” Brown curtly nodded.

Not the “passing game,” as Brown contended on Wednesday, because the “passing game” incorporates play-calling, pass protection, and receivers running the proper routes with the proper timing. The pass protection, route running, and scheme have been good enough so that the Eagles shouldn’t be ranked second-to-last in passing yards. “Passing” is done by one person: the quarterback.

This is not complicated. Hurts is missing open receivers, and he’s been holding on to the ball too long (which he also admitted Wednesday). Hurts clearly is worried about going on another turnover binge, and the result of his reluctance has been nine straight wins at the expense of catches and yards for the best receiver tandem in the history of the franchise.

It is what it is

Brown knew exactly what he was saying, and he said it, and he’s right.

Graham told the truth. Even Hurts told a candid, authentic truth, which is rare for the 26-year-old who usually hides his real self in murky aphorisms and mottoes.

Hurts and Sirianni were careful to note that there is no feud between Hurts and Brown. On Friday, perhaps disingenuously, Sirianni contended: “I think the last time we thought about that was Wednesday. ... Since then, it’s been a nonissue.”

The first part seems unlikely, but the second part’s probably true.

Having observed Brown and Hurts for three years now, neither is the sort to hold a grudge long, especially since they have a friendship that predates their coworker status. Besides, frustration does not always indicate animosity.

Hurts also presented this hard truth Wednesday:

They’re winning with the current formula, and he is reluctant to change it to appease Brown, or Smith, or you, or me.

With a top-ranked defense and the leagues’ top running back, Hurts isn’t going to take many risks.

Or is he?

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