Brandon Graham should be an Eagle for life
With the Philadelphia Eagles setting up for a rebuild year in 2021, questions are swirling around as to who will be around for that rebuild. How will the team get under the salary cap? Who will stay around for the rebuild? Will older vets be traded or released?
All of these are justifiable questions, as the Eagles need to shed a ton of contracts in order to get under the salary cap for 2021. They’ve already moved on from DeSean Jackson, with releases of Alshon Jeffery and Malik Jackson coming as post-June 1st cuts. There’s more moves to come, with more releases and trades coming during the offseason.
Of all of the players that can be debated on if they should stay, there’s one player that it shouldn’t even be a question on: Brandon Graham.
A first round pick in 2010, Graham’s career with the Eagles has seen its ups and downs, but has been a major success for the franchise. The great debate for years was that the Eagles shouldn’t have drafted Graham and gone with Earl Thomas. For years, you could’ve made the case that should have happened. As time has gone on, however, Graham has proved all of his doubters wrong and been one of the best defensive players in Eagles history.
Graham owns the most important play in Eagles history with his strip sack of Tom Brady in Super Bowl 52, leading to the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory. He’s been one of the team’s most consistent players over the last few years, making that critical play when the team needs it. He’s coming off of his first Pro Bowl season in 2020, being one of the only bright spots of the team in 2020. To get rid of one of the only good things the team has on the defensive side of the ball right now doesn’t make sense.
Entering the final year of his contract, Graham has made it clear that he doesn’t want to go anywhere and will stay around for a rebuild. The rumor was that he was already working to restructure his contract, which would lower his cap hit this year and possibly add a few more years to it. This would probably be his last contract in Philadelphia, and the last contract of his career.
This would be the fourth head coach Graham has played under, as he’s been around for the Andy Reid, Chip Kelly and Doug Pederson era, and will now join Nick Sirianni’s head coaching journey. The team needs a veteran leader right now with a new staff coming into the locker room, and Graham is the perfect candidate for that role.
The idea of playing somewhere else isn’t something Graham wants to consider, and isn’t something Eagles fans want to consider either. He’s earned the opportunity to continue his career here, and the team needs to do whatever it takes to keep Graham in Philadelphia and an Eagle for life.
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Categorized:Eagles