A.J. Brown insists he is 'not mad' at Eagles coach Nick Sirianni - ESPN

PHILADELPHIA — Eagles receiver A.J. Brown addressed the root of his recent frustrations Wednesday and pushed back at speculation that he has an issue with coach Nick Sirianni.

«People say I'm beefing with Nick,» Brown said. «I'm not mad at Nick, I'm not mad at nobody. We have a great relationship.

»We're riding with Nick. We're riding with [offensive coordinator] Brian [Johnson]. We just have to come out and play ball."

Brown declined to speak to the media after the Eagles' past two games — a shaky win against the Giants on Christmas Day followed by Sunday's upset defeat to a 12-loss Cardinals team that delivered a blow to Philadelphia's chances of winning the NFC East.

Brown was seen shaking his head as the offense faltered late against Arizona and told reporters he had «nothing to say» after the game before walking out of the locker room.

«Like I said after the game, I was raised that if I have nothing nice to say I'm not going to say nothing at all,» Brown said Wednesday. «So I'm not just about to compound the negative with the negative so you guys can write more negative stuff.

»And then on top of that, everything that I do, if I say something, if I do anything, I'm classified as a monster. And it's honestly the opposite. You saw my frustration on the field — it wasn't about the playcall, it wasn't about none of that. It was about my guy [DeVonta Smith] getting banged up. I'm going to need Smitty moving forward. That was it."

Smith was injured on Philadelphia's second-to-last drive while blocking on a screen to Kenneth Gainwell on third-and-long. The play came up well short of the first-down marker, the Eagles settled for a field goal and Arizona drove the length of the field for the game-winning touchdown.

Smith