Nobody knows if this is sustainable, but Brandon Graham is in the deep end of the snap-count pool now. Through three games, the Eagles’ 15-year veteran defensive end is on pace to play more snaps than he has since 2020. He was 32 then. Now, he’s 36.
The reason for the snap increase is two-fold. First, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio loves him and thinks he can still play at a high level no matter the snap count. Second, Bryce Huff is still trying to figure it out, and right now, it looks like the free-agent signing is thinking more than just letting it rip and play with instincts.
Until Huff does figure it out – if he ever does – Graham will be a bigger part of the defense.
“My biggest slogan this year is I wanna go out the same way I came in - strong and helping the team and whatever that looks like,” he said on Wednesday as the Eagles prepare for Week 4’s game in Tampa on Sunday.
“This year, it ain't no farewell tour. I know I go hard in practice, and I try to get the guys to get going. I'm seeing it. I been there. You gotta grind every day, and it's a continuous grind. You gotta believe in the dream and I think I'm starting to rub off in a good way on him and he wants to play me a lot more.”
Yes, Fangio wants more out of Graham, but as much as the conversation tends to be about monitoring running back Saquon Barkley’s snaps, the same could be said for Graham.
So far so good, he said. But it’s September. What will January look like for him? That's impossible to answer. Right now, though?
"I feel good,” he said. “I always know the second day after the game you definitely start to feel pain. I just had a couple of nicks, but it's nothing out of the ordinary. I'm recovered already…I feel really, really good.”
Graham has played 95 snaps in three games (52 percent). Last year, he played 395 snaps (34 percent). In 2022, he played 43 percent coming off an Achilles’ tear in 2021 that held him to just 51 snaps. In 2020, he played 757 (69 percent).
Graham made two very under-the-radar plays in the 15-12 win over the Saints.
His first was when he took on a double team and didn't budge on a fourth-and-one stop with Zack Baun making a tackle that wouldn't have been possible without Graham clogging the hole on the Alvin Kamara run.
His second was the pressure he put on Derek Carr on the play that led to a game-sealing interception by Reed Blankenship. Carr had to hurry the throw with Graham about to clobber him, which he still did after Carr released the ball.
“Last year, what I have, three sacks?” he said. “I played but I didn’t play as much as I’m playing now. You just start to see the writing on the wall sometimes and I thought it was until Vic came. Now I'm back in the mix for real. I knew I was playing good still, but playing in the game, that's when you really know.”
