Philadelphia Eagles: Brandon Graham is saving the best for last

Brandon Graham is tearing it up for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Philadelphia Eagles edge rusher Brandon Graham doesn’t get enough credit.

The 13th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, Graham is one of the few Eagles players in recent memory to play a decade with the same team, even if his role and responsibilities have varied considerably from the Andy Reid-era to Chip Kelly‘s tenure and now under the dynamic duo of Doug Pederson and Jim Schwartz.

Now from a macro, national perspective, I get. Graham has never amassed double-digit sack in a regular season or made an appearance at the Pro Bowl, not even as an injury replacement. Maybe on another team, Graham would get a bit more love for his relentless motor, pocket collapsing abilities, and pension for stripping sacks at the best possible time, but when you play next to Fletcher Cox for most of your prime, sometimes that guy gets overlooked.

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Frankly, it’s understandable.

What isn’t understandable, however, is the lack of love BG gets from his adoptive hometown.

From hypothetical trade suggestions to some suggesting Graham should be released outright to save money against the cap in 2021, fans, as a general rule, are far less loyal to number 55 than, say, Zach Ertz, Jason Kelce, or pre-2020 Jason Peters.

Why? Honestly, beats me.

Through the first eight games of the 2020 season, Graham has been playing like a man on fire. He’s recorded seven sacks – including four in the last three weeks – 11 quarterback hits, and a team-high nine tackles for a loss.

Just for context, Graham only had 8.5 sacks last season in twice as many games and has never recorded more than 9.5 in a single season.

While it may be a bit presumptuous to assume that Graham could finally pass into the double-digit sack club in Week 10, even though he bullied up on Cameron Fleming and Andrew Thomas in the team’s last meeting, it’s near unimaginable to predict this won’t be the year it goes down.

Seriously, since pairing up with Schwartz in 2016, Graham has never gone more than four games without a sack and has averaged a sack every 2.31 games. Even if Graham just regresses to that mean for the final eight games of the season – much of which are against teams with sub-optimal offensive lines – he’d finish out the season with a clean 10 sacks.

Do sacks really matter in the grand scheme of things? No, in fact, many ‘stat guys’ will tell you that sacks can oftentimes represent a player being at the ‘right place at the right time’ and don’t necessarily highlight the strengths of a pass rusher – see Babin, Jason – but for a player like Graham, finally getting that monkey off his back would be a nice accomplishment none the less.

Who knows, maybe if Graham finally hits the 10 sack mark, he’ll finally get the respect he’s worked his butt off to earn over the last decade-plus… not that BG really needs external validation.

Even if this is Brandon Graham’s Undertaker-style Last Ride with the Philadelphia Eagles, an idea I suggested before the season started, it’s rather fitting that it may also go down as his best. For all of the near-sacks and maddening just-misses on the field, Graham has remained fiercely loyal to the midnight green to the point that he’s never legitimately tested free agency with any sort of vigor. Whether he plays eight more games or eight more seasons, he’s still the guy who strip-sacked Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, and for that – and his 58 sacks and counting – BG will forever hold a special place in the annals of Eagles’ lore.