The Eagles have no shortage of things to improve as they approach the final games of the 2025 season, and one area they can’t overlook is the growing list of penalties.
Through 12 games, the Eagles have committed 91 total penalties, including 20 false starts — the team’s most committed penalty, landing them among the worst in the league at waiting for the snap.
Perhaps surprisingly, the player who accounted for the team’s most false start penalties was A.J. Brown, who has been flagged for it four times this season. It’s a trend that started back in December 2024 when Brown had two false starts within three games after not committing the penalty since 2021. The WR had one false start in each of his first three NFL seasons, and then went until December 2024 without a single misstep, and is now on a six false start run over the past 12 months.
Something doesn’t add up there.
That false starts are the biggest infraction shows there’s a lingering communication problem among the offense. Is Brown not as engaged? Is the offensive line setting up the snap correctly? Is it a Jalen Hurts cadence issue? Pinpointing why Brown has seemed so undisciplined or unprepared at the line should be a priority.
It should also be noted that it’s not just false starts for Brown, he’s had several other penalties (unnecessary roughness, low block, and [a very questionable] OPI call) totaling seven this season, which is the most on the team, puts him among the Top 20 most flagged players in the league, and is more than double his previous career-high penalties in a season (3).
But, to be clear, it’s not just Brown. Another vocal locker room leader this season is Jordan Mailata, who continues to talk about the OL needing to focus and eliminate mistakes, but leads the Eagles OL in penalties this season with six total. Three of those six are false starts. Landon Dickerson adds another three false starts to the list, and the left side of the line is starting to look like a problem.
Brown, Mailata, and Dickerson combine for 10 of the team’s 20 false starts this season.
How does this look compared to years prior? Well, the Eagles had 30 false starts in 2024 — No. 2 in the NFL behind Buffalo with 31 — and in 2023 only had 24 all year. At this rate, they’re on pace to tie last year’s numbers, but with the lack of offensive production to make up for those pre-snap penalties, the flag rate is much more impactful.
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