Getty Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox of the Philadelphia Eagles.
There were rumored rumblings about Brandon Graham “generating interest from other teams” at the start of free agency. The Cleveland Browns were mentioned by name as a reunion with former defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was the main selling point. Well, it sounds like the whole thing was a farce to drive up the price.
Graham eventually inked a one-year deal worth up to $6 million to return to the franchise that drafted him 13th overall in 2010. He was never going anywhere. He never even entertained the idea of leaving. The 35-year-old pass rusher told Derrick Gunn of JAKIB Sports that he wanted to come back and “finish what he started.”
“You always want to see what you’re leaving on the table,” Graham told Gunn. “But I know, for me, I’m telling the younger guys, like I’m doing everything on the backend, I didn’t get it all upfront, in the beginning, because Chip Kelly was here and there was a lot of stuff going on during those times. I’m just happy I survived through it, and I feel like the ending, the way everything is happening now, is kind of like what I’m so thankful for.
“I didn’t want to have to leave so, really, I was just entertaining [it], trying to make it look like I was leaving so it would give me a nice little negotiation with the team. But I wasn’t leaving regardless, but you can’t make it easy for them.”
Sports Take with Derrick Gunn & Rob Ellis | Tuesday June 20th, 2023 t.co/b6th9j6FdX via @YouTube
Sports Take at Noon.
Brandon Graham joins us at 12:30!
-We’ll discuss his offseason, look ahead to 2023,
S.B. loss, new faces on defense
-Plus a Braves Phils Preview
Mentor to Nolan Smith, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter
Graham had another goal in mind when he made the decision to return. The one-time Pro Bowler wanted to mentor the younger guys, specifically Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, and Jordan Davis. He doesn’t care if his snaps go down. It’s his job to pass the torch.
“I know my reps are going to go down because we’re trying to get these boys ready for the future,” Graham said. “So, I’m excited just to help them and give them all the game that I have, to be able to help them, like I told them, ‘I want to see you win, that’s it.’ I know what it feels like. I’m at that point now where I’ve won at everything I’ve wanted to do in this football life. And I want to make sure I pay it back by giving it to them boys.”
Brandon Graham’s 2022 season:
11 sacks (career high)
2 forced fumbles
35 tackles
11 TFLs
Graham did this at 34 years old coming off a torn achilles. He deserves recognition for comeback player of the year.
Graham registered a career high 11 sacks in 2022 despite playing only 474 snaps, his lowest snap output since 2013 (excluding his injury-shortened 2021 season). Those reps are going to take a bigger hit in 2023. It doesn’t matter. The future Eagles Hall of Famer revealed to Gunn that he stayed late with the youngsters at OTAs – off the practice field, in the weight room – and whispered secrets into their ears while getting a lift in.
“I’m happy that they are really taking it serious,” Graham said. “We would lift and they would do some stuff with me. After every lift, we did Monday through Thursday, and them boys, I could just see that we’re building something more special than we did last year.”
Slippery Field Caused Problems at Super Bowl
It’s no secret that the field conditions at State Farm Stadium in Arizona were less than ideal. Eagles players openly complained about slipping and falling as the controversial Tahoma 31 turf drew comparisons to an ice-skating rink. It was bad. Graham wasn’t about to blame the field for the Eagles’ three-point loss, but it definitely forced them to miss a few sacks.
“It was more about the surface, especially with us sliding, you know you need that traction to be able to get off the block and we was slipping a lot,” Graham said. “I don’t make excuses. I just know that that’s what we were talking about. It was us trying to get out of our own heads a little bit. That O-line, they got blessed, I’ll say that.”
Props to the Chiefs’ o-line for not allowing the Eagles to get a sack
Eagles still only have 2 SB sacks in their history- Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville (Derrick Burgess sacked Tom Brady) and Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis (Brandon Graham strip sacked Tom Brady)
#FlyEaglesFly
The Kanas City Chiefs offensive line kept Patrick Mahomes clean all day. They didn’t allow a single sack, an impressive feat considering the Eagles had sacked the quarterback a franchise record 70 times in the regular season.