Brandon Graham Reveals Why He Re-Signed With Eagles

Future Hall-of-Fame center Jason Kelce recently decided to hang up his cleats, but his counterpart on defense Brandon Graham chose to do the opposite and return to the Philadelphia Eagles on a 1-year deal for $4 million.

Philadelphia has a new defensive coaching staff in town, which often means a complete roster overhaul, but not when it comes to retaining Graham.

According to Josina Anderson of CBS Sports who recently spoke with Graham on the phone, he said in regards to re-signing, “I did it because I always wanted to get to 15…but I’m done after this.”

Graham added, “I did it because, I always wanted to get to 15 (years in the NFL). I’m happy that the team wanted me one more year…It’s

important to me because Ray Lewis was one of the guys I looked up to (as a player); to see him do it the way he did it (staying with one team for 17 seasons) was nice…but I’m done after this.”

Graham is about to turn 36 and is coming off a subpar year by his standards, where he posted just 16 tackles and three sacks despite playing all 17 games

At this point in his career, Graham is obviously more of a rotational piece and his current contract reflects that.

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The team’s top two edge rushers Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat are already each seeing their names surface in trade rumors this offseason,

so keeping Graham around to maintain some stability in case Reddick and Sweat leave is important for continuity amidst a drastic coaching staff overhaul.

According to Spotrac, Philly currently has about $40.7 million in cap space to work with to find Graham’s potential successors.

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