No Ceremonial Retirement Tour For Eagles' Veteran

Brandon Graham can still play in his 15th NFL season and Eagles DC Vic Fangio intends to take advantage of that.

Eagles' Brandon Graham (55) takes to the practice field during training camp Thursday at the NovaCare Complex. / Jerry Habraken/Delaware News Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

PHILADELPHIA - Considering the condition of the turf in São Paulo, Brazil, it’s probably a good idea to give the Eagles’ pass rush a mulligan while waiting to see what things look like on Sept. 16 against the Atlanta Falcons and a stationary target who doesn’t look comfortable coming off his Achilles injury in Kirk Cousins.

In Philadelphia’s season-opening 34-29 win over Green Bay, the Eagles were credited with two sacks – both by linebacker Zack Baun – and five quarterback hits.

“We didn't pass rush good enough overall in the game,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio admitted. “Did the field have something to do with that? Yeah, it obviously did. But overall we could get better there.”

The planned centerpiece of the pass rush, $51 million free-agent acquisition Bryce Huff recorded a clean sheet in the game, usually a positive on a soccer pitch but a very negative development made worse by the fact that 15-year veteran Brandon Graham (32 snaps) and second-year project Nolan Smith (31) played more than that proposed centerpiece (30 snaps for Huff). 

Head coach Nick Sirianni downplayed that slight advantage in playing time for Graham and Smith over Huff on Monday and Fangio followed suit on Wednesday.

“I think most of our guys, if you look at it, we had five guys up and they all played about similar rep counts. We're just rolling those guys,” Fangio said.

There was a method to rolling, through. 

Graham is by far the best run-support player the Eagles have on the edge and Fangio used him on first down nearly two times as much as Huff.

“He's improving,” Fangio said of Huff when asked about his ability to play the run. “Obviously we all had a play or two, I had a call or two that could have been better. But he's improving in that area.”

The veteran DC couldn’t help but smile when asked about Graham, who has confirmed this as his final season, by Eagles on SI.

“Brandon is still a good player, and I've told him several times, he's not on any ceremonial last-year retirement parade,” Fangio said. “He's going to play. He's still playing good.”

The idea of playing Graham on early downs in an attempt to get to third-and-long where you can set Huff loose is the type of personnel management that reminds you why Fangio’s reputation around the NFL is at the level it is.

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