Ranking the Eagles' 7 Most Important Pending Free Agents

2. Brandon Graham

Continuing on that same thread of reasoning, who better to help turn this around than the Eagles' franchise leader in games played?

Brandon Graham has announced that he plans to retire after the 2024 season. There's no question about whether his last season will be played in Philly, so this re-signing isn't important from the sense of "we have to sign him so somebody else doesn't," but it's important none the less.

Graham's leadership and positive impact on the locker room (not to mention the broader Philly community) can't be over-stated. But his on-field impact isn't too shabby either.

A 3.0-sack season might make you think Graham wasn't having an impact as a pass-rusher, but that's why you can't just look at a couple stats to judge a player. Even when he wasn't finishing off sacks, he was regularly getting into the backfield and putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Forcing a bad throw isn't always as impactful as getting a sack, but it certainly matters.

Graham finished with 29 pressures on the year, and PFF still has him graded as a top-15 edge defender. If I had to guess I'd say he won't be one of the NFL's 15 best EDGEs in 2024, but it's clear that he's still capable of being a massively impactful rotational player.