Eagles Don’t Plan On Pushing the Issue With WR Touches

PHILADELPHIA - Efficiency was the theme of the Eagles’ season-opening win over Dallas even if the team’s receiving stars weren’t all that busy.

A.J. Brown wasn’t targeted until the 59th minute of a 60-minute game, and DeVonta Smith had only three targets of his own during a 24-20 victory.

As good as Brown and Smith are, Philadelphia doesn’t seem to have much urgency to force the football to either star.

Eagles On SI asked both offensive coordinator and play-caller Kevin Patullo and head coach Nick Sirianni about the idea of manufactured touches this week.

Balancing Manufactured Touches

Sep 4, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith (6) warms up prior to the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

“When you're balancing [manufactured touches], it's really like, 'What's the opportunity,' or, 'Is it a first-down thing or a second-down thing? Is there a down that presents itself where we can get that done?'” Patullo explained. “If we're behind the chains, then all of a sudden you're going to want the full field reads potentially. If you're staying in-phase and you get a nice first-down run and you're manageable on second-down, maybe you can afford to take that opportunity to say, 'Hey, we're going all in on this thing.'

“I think it's finding that down if you get one to kind of take an opportunity to manufacture something like that if you can.”

Sirianni has often noted that the team’s game-planning highlights Brown, Smith, tight end Dallas Goedert, and running back Saquon Barkley in that order when it comes to the passing game.

Sirianni’s mentor, former boss, and ex-coach at Mount Union, Larry Kehres, was the foundation of Sirianni’s mindset of “players over plays.”

The call sheet in Philadelphia includes sections for the star playmakers to make sure they are always at the forefront of the play caller’s mind.

However, that’s not the same as forcing things for Sirianni.

“Everybody does different things. Everyone has different skillsets as well, and so you want to use the skillset that the guy has,” said Sirianni. “Now, again, A.J., DeVonta, Dallas – I feel like they have a skillset that they can do a lot of different things, but you always want to use their skillset there.

“A lot of times on bubble [screens], I wouldn't say every time, but it's based off of looks of what you get and sometimes the look doesn't allow you to [run that play]. So even when you have a plan to say, ‘Here's what we're doing,’ the quarterback can't just say, or the coordinator, or myself as the head coach can't just say, ‘Throw it there, hell or high water.’ That's just not how the game's played and that's just not how we go about it.”

It’s a delicate balance of finding what the defense is giving you vs. making sure the best players get the most touches.

“Obviously, we always want to get those guys the football because good things happen when they do touch the football, but there's also an art to the quarterback position that you got to take what the defense gives you and what's available to you in the moment.” said Sirianni. “If I start telling Jalen [Hurts], ‘You got to throw it here’ – I don't think that's good coaching.

“What we have to do as coaches is try to manufacture abilities to do that, and if we are able to – we’re able to get [A.J. Brown] the ball.”

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