Eagles Top 25 Best Players Countdown: Veteran Defensive End Snaps Cornerback Run

Now in his 15th and final season, the 36-year-old Brandon Graham still has what it takes to be one of the best Eagles on this year's team.

Dec 25, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham (55) runs off the field after win against the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA – The streak is over.

Until now, cornerbacks had dominated our list of the top 25 Eagles. The first four on our list, which is actually the final four, were all corners:

No. 25 – Kelee Ringo

No. 24 – Cooper DeJean

No. 23 – Isaiah Rodgers

No. 22 – Avonte Maddox

Leave it to Brandon Graham to break that strong. The Eagles veteran defensive lineman checks in at No. 21.

Eagles DE Brandon Graham / John McMullen/Eagles SI

The list has become an annual affair in which SI.com’s Eagles beat reporters Ed Kracz and John McMullen submit their top 25 lists simultaneously so each would be unaffected by the others.

No. 1 on the list is awarded 25 points and so one down the list with No. 25 receiving one point.

One player will be revealed each day as we count down until Eagles training camp with players set to report on July 23.

There is no doubt that cornerback is now a position of strength on this Eagles team. Graham, though, continues to flex his strength even at the age of 36 and now entering his 15th and final year. There was a time he would have been higher on this list, but he he become a role player, good for about 30 snaps per game in recent years.

Who knows, though, maybe his role will expand a bit with new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio?

Graham, now 36, is down with whatever, and that whatever is whatever helps the team wins. There’s nothing he would like more than to end his career with another Super Bowl ring to match the one he helped the Eagles win with a strip-sack of Tom Brady in the final minutes of Super Bowl LVII.

Those happy endings don’t always happen – look at the way it ended for Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox a season ago. Like those two retired Eagles, Graham will do whatever he can to finish the season in New Orleans, the site of this season’s Super Bowl.

Perhaps Graham does his best work in a role carved out to keep gas in his tank. It was just two years ago that he played 43 percent of the defensive snaps and finished with a career-high 11 sacks.

There is no denying that Graham plays hard on every snap, and he has 73 career sacks to show for it, which are the fourth-most in franchise history. If he can find a way to get three this year, he will tie Clyde Simmons with 76 for the third-most.

“Enjoying the last little hoorah of every little thing that I can,” he said during minicamp in early June. “Just the way (general manager) Howie (Roseman) put this team together, I can feel the good vibes. Man, he put us in a good position. This could be my last year and I'm happy to go out with a team like that. We just have to put in the work. 

"I'm just enjoying every second. I'm in no rush to go anywhere. I'm definitely enjoying just support everybody."

Graham said when he calls it a career, he wants to remain a part of the Eagles organization in some capacity.

He very well might, but this will be the last time he is on our top 25 list of the best Eagles heading into another training camp.

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