Philadelphia Eagles: Spotrac projects Brandon Graham’s next contract

The future of the Philadelphia Eagles‘ front seven is looking bright.

It all started in 2021, when Howie Roseman and company drafted Milton Williams and then extended Josh Sweat to a new three-year, $40 million extension. Roseman then added Haason Reddick on the first day of free agency, who will play a hybrid strongside linebacker/designated pass rusher, and inside linebacker Kyzir White shortly thereafter, before selecting Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, and Kyron Johnson with three of the team’s five draft picks.

But hey, just because a new guard is inching more and more into the spotlight doesn’t mean the OG’s of Philly’s defense are just waiting for their contracts to expire. While securing young players like the ones previously mentioned are clearly the priority, there are a number of players over 30 on the Eagles’ roster who may see their time in the NFL prolonged a bit further into the future via a contract extension.

One of those players is Brandon Graham, the longest-tenured player on the Philadelphia Eagles and one of the few remaining Super Bowl heroes left on the roster. Coming off of a torn Achilles that cost him all but two games of his 12th NFL career, Graham is entering the final year of his current three-year, $40 million contract, but how much could his next year cost? Fortunately, our friends over at Sportrac swooped in with a projection on that very topic; a projection that could ultimately play a part in whether or not BG retires as a member of the team that drafted him back in 2010.

The Philadelphia Eagles have an interesting decision to make about BG.

$20,483,733 over two years; that’s how much Spotrac believes Brandon Graham’s services will be worth on the open market in 2023 and how much he could ultimately earn on his next contract, be that from the Philadelphia Eagles or someone else.

That’s… a lot of money for a 35-year-old defensive end who will be entering his 14th and 15th NFL seasons and has watched his most recent season end via a torn Achilles. And yet, when you look at Graham’s production over the past four seasons – since he turned 30 – it’s not totally unwarranted either.

Since 2018, Graham has appeared in 50 regular season games with 50 starts. He’s recorded 103 solo tackles, 175 combined tackles, 45 QB hits, 20.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, and two passes defensed. Those numbers, while not All-World, are pretty good; projected over a 17 game season, that would give Graham 60 combined tackles, 15 QB hits, seven sacks, and a forced fumble, which would have ranked fifth, second, third, and tied for third on the Eagles in 2021.

Now granted, are those projections semi-unreliable, considering Graham isn’t getting any younger? You bet, but it is noteworthy that his production has actually been better over the past four seasons than in the four that preceded them. Considering Graham’s game isn’t particularly predicated on athleticism, with the collegiate Michigan Wolverine winning his battles with power instead of speed, there’s little reason to believe BG couldn’t be a fine base down defensive end who either kicks it inside or takes a seat on the bench in favor of Hasson Reddick on obvious passing downs.

And yet, $10 million a year is a lot of money. For $10 million, the Eagles were able to sign James Bradberry for one season, a player who will need a new deal if all goes well and is more than every player on the roster not named Javon Hargrave, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox, and Darius Slay will earn in 2022. If Graham wants to stick it out in Philly, he might have to simply accept a smaller deal, especially since he will earn *gulp* $19.811 million over the next four years due to void years added to his contract by Howie Roseman.

Could Roseman fold some new money and additional years into Graham’s current contractual situation to actually get some production for Jeffrey Lurie’s money? Considering Graham’s willingness to renegotiate his contract in the past, that wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

As crazy as it may sound considering the evidence, the day will come when Brandon Graham’s production starts to tail off. He’ll go from an every game starter to a reliable veteran role player or will simply hang up his cleats entirely to avoid putting a diminished product on the field. When that day comes, fans of the Philadelphia Eagles will celebrate his time in midnight green, regardless of whether his career ended in South Philly, back in Michigan, or elsewhere as a veteran hired gun. If BG’s camp march into Howie Roseman’s office with the Spotrac number and say ‘take it or leave it,’ the results will probably be the latter, but if the two sides can negotiate a number that works for everyone, well, then it sure would be nice to see number 55 play out his career at the Linc before the jersey is hung forever in the rafters.