When it was revealed that beloved Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham would be coming out of retirement for his 16th season, the fan base was ecstatic as the team’s pass rush desperately needed a jolt based on their first-half performance.
Graham did not play in the Eagles’ Week 8 contest against the New York Giants, but made his regular-season debut on Monday night against the Green Bay Packers. Fans wondered what the team’s new pass rush rotation would look like with Graham, Nolan Smith Jr.’s return from injured reserve, and Jaelen Phillips’ debut.
On paper, the Eagles’ pass rush looked much improved than it did a few weeks ago after the retirement of Za’Darius Smith. And on Monday night, it showed as the Eagles’ defense got after Packers QB Jordan Love, sacking him three times and piling up eight QB hits.
Even Graham got involved in the action, playing 10 snaps on defense. While it was great to see Graham back on the field, Josh Uche sadly became the odd man out on Monday night, which was shocking to see.
Before Monday’s game, Uche played a significant part of the Eagles’ pass rush unit over the last five games, playing at least 30 defensive snaps three times. So to see him go from 31 defensive snaps in Week 8 to zero is stark.
Eagles Can't Forget About Josh Uche Despite Pass Rush Recent Additions
Now, Graham’s return on Monday night wasn’t the sole reason for Uche not seeing the field on defense.
As we previously mentioned, Smith was activated off IR before gametime and played 19 defensive snaps. At the same time, Jalyx Hunt also saw a slight uptick, going from 37 snaps in Week 8 to 43 on Monday night.
Before he got hurt, Smith played 44 or more snaps in three straight games, so it wasn’t a shock to see the Eagles get him back in the mix. However, the Eagles cannot just forget about Uche, with the new changes on the edge.
According to Pro Football Focus, Uche has the second-highest pass-rush grade (83.1) behind star linebacker Zack Baun, despite only playing 35% of defensive snaps. Furthermore, the vet is ranked fifth in pressures on the team (20), which includes 18 hurries. Remember, Uche is doing this while not being a starter.
It’s also worth noting that Uche’s pressure win rate is 17.1, which is fourth on the team behind the likes of Za’Darius Smith (17.4%), Phillips (19.3%), and Baun (25.6%).
While Uche only has one sack on the season, his ability to create pressure is something that the Eagles should not take for granted. Adding in a 37-year-old Graham at this point of the year is a nice boost, though, considering the injuries on the edge.
However, Fangio should not put all his eggs into Graham’s basket and needs to figure out how and where to get Uche on the field. At Graham’s age, you want to use him in specific spots to get the best out of him.
Fangio should try to do something similar with Uche going forward, who has proven to be one of Philadelphia's better guys this season when the defense wasn’t getting much from the pass rush.