Brandon Graham Is An Eagle On A Mission

Years ago I played for the Detroit Lions and lived in this nice neighborhood outside of Detroit.  There were times when I needed to take trips into sections of Detroit to visit community centers and play in charity basketball games.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.  There were a lot of young athletes trying to make it out of some tough communities.

When Brandon Graham was drafted in in the first round of the 2010, I remembered looking at where he grew up and realized that he grew up in one of the areas I used to visit.  We have talked about it a number of times in the Eagles locker room.

Fact of the matter is that talking to Graham is about the easiest thing I could think of doing.  He is a smiling and good natured guy.  Graham is the number one player that the reporters go to when the Eagles locker room is opened because he’s always ready to talk.  The former Michigan Wolverine has always got a smile on his face and he’s always got plenty of energy, but that wasn’t always the case for Graham.

The beginning of his career didn’t go well.  Eagles defensive line coach Jim Washburn pushed him to get production out of him, but that was to no avail.  Graham didn’t flourish under the pressure instead his production or lack thereof got worse.

“The low point was when Wash was here,” he said. “Wash would make you feel bad, boy. He would make you feel like you can’t play at all.”

Graham’s confidence was almost down to zero when out of nowhere a miracle happened.  They fired Washburn.

This past season and off season, things turned around for Graham, who was on the verge of being labeled a bust.  He had been drafted by the Eagles in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft.  The Birds traded up to get him and ignored drafting Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl safety Earl Thomas.

He’s in a great spot now but he’s got to be able to get to the passer.

“Yeah, I’m excited man,” Graham said. “I’ve been through a lot but I’m just happy I fought through it at the right time. My biggest thing was “don’t break.” And I was almost at that breaking point where it was just like, Man, stuff is not going right.'”

This is a big year for Graham, who Chip Kelly singled out today as maybe the strongest Eagles pound for pound.  He got a new 4-year $26 million dollar contract with $14 million of it guaranteed in the off season.  Life is going to continue to good to Graham if he can do two things this year.  He needs to get to the quarterback and stay healthy.  If he does those things well, the Eagles defense will have a solid pass rush and they should have a good year.

“I’m still going to have that mentality,” Graham emphasized he’s going to continue to work hard. “Because, now I finally get my opportunity that I’ve been waiting on. But, I still have that chip on my shoulder. Now, I can’t wait to get out there on 80 to 90 percent of the plays and see what happens after that.”

I would advise Graham to not get too pumped up right now.  He’s needs to focus on the detail of his job.  He should spend all his time making sure that knows his assignments and then each week he must exhaust himself studying his opponents because the emotion will be there because it’s been building up for years.

“This year, I got way more [of an] opportunity than I had [before],” said Graham. “I get to start the game off, my energy… it’s always crazy at the beginning the game, you got so much energy. And to just sit on the bench for that little bit… but now I finally get to go right from the start and that’s what I’m excited about.”

Maybe I’ll remind him of where he came from in Detroit.  That will definitely get him going.