Why AJ Brown likes facing Quinyon Mitchell so much originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
It would make sense for the Eagles to give first-round pick Quinyon Mitchell the opportunity to cover their resident Pro Bowl receiver AJ Brown in one-on-one matchups in training camp.
But this was not a team directive.
In fact, it was Brown’s work.
“That’s not intentional,” Brown said. “It’s me kind of fighting with him, trying to get him to move on. He likes to talk bad about me. But I’m just fighting with him to make the training very interesting. But he’s not intimidated, he’s not disturbed.”
Brown isn’t much of a trash talker, but Mitchell is and Brown seems to like the competitiveness with which Mitchell plays. It all started in the spring when Mitchell told Brown he ran a “garbage” route on their first rep against each other.
At the time, this surprised Brown. Now? He’s used to it.
And it’s leading to battles like the one we saw in this one-on-one replay from the other day.
On this play, Brown makes the catch with one hand in the end zone, but only gets one foot inbounds. Mitchell had extremely tight coverage.
Whenever Brown challenges Mitchell, he gauges the young cornerback’s response.
“Absolutely, absolutely,” Brown said. “I know it’s pitched battles, but at the end of the day I’m just trying to get it ready for when we play in September and that can continue. Like I said, he doesn’t back down, he hasn’t backed down once and that’s what I want to see.
“And also, like I said, for me, it makes training very interesting when someone is there singing. This keeps me going. Because these days are long, these days are long and you don’t want to just practice if you haven’t caught a ball or something. You also want some competitors on the other side. I’m not saying other guys don’t do it, but you all know (Darius) Slay like I know Slay. Not much will happen to him. He will laugh at everything. But Q, he’s going to be locked up and he’s going to talk the talk.”
Most of the reps between Brown and Mitchell are now at 1-on-1 and a little at 7-on-7. Because through the first six practices of training camp, Mitchell didn’t get many reps at 11-on-11 as the starting outside cornerback. Those, for now, go to Kelee Ringo and Isaiah Rodgers, while Mitchell is working at the nickel corner and dime linebacker positions.
But eventually, Mitchell will likely get some legitimate first-team reps at cornerback and should have a legitimate shot at earning a starting job. So he will see Brown in a team environment.
You can bet that when that happens, Mitchell will let Brown hear about it.
Because as much as we’ve heard that Mitchell is a soft-spoken young rookie, Brown has seen another side of him on and off the field.
“I think I’m building a relationship with him because I don’t think he’s a smooth talker anymore,” Brown said. “His relationship and I have a lot of back and forth. I think just watching him outside of football, he’s quiet, he’s kind of with himself and that’s not a bad thing. But see if you continue to talk to him and spend more time with him, he will open up to you like he did to me.
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