Thanks to an ankle injury that eventually needed surgery, Super Bowl hero Brandon Graham missed all of the Eagles’ spring workouts and all of training camp during his recovery.
It’s safe to say Graham was eager to get back out there.
“He was like a caged-up lion or something,” Jim Schwartz said Monday. “He just had so much energy out there yesterday.”
While Graham got back to practice after being activated from the Active/PUP list last Monday, this Sunday offered the first day of a new week of practice. We’re now well under two weeks before the season opener.
Schwartz said the Eagles want to see how he responds from more rigorous practices and that will go a long way in determining how much Graham will play in the opener on Sept. 6 against the Falcons.
Graham said he is about “80 percent,” which admittedly doesn’t sound great. But based on his other updates, he might have just been a tough grader on himself.
“I’m feeling good,” Graham said Monday. “It was really good. Good start. It let me know I’m not that far. I wasn’t out of shape. That was pretty cool to know all the hard work we’ve been doing this offseason in the training room and the weight room has been worth it because now on the field, I ran a couple plays and I wasn’t as tired.”
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More importantly, Graham said there were no issues with his ankle after going through practice on Sunday.
The hardest part of getting over the ankle injury, Graham said, is getting back to the ability to turn around a corner. That’s obviously very dependent upon a healthy ankle. He said that wasn’t an issue as the week of practice began.
Graham will presumably take back his starting left defensive end spot for the season opener, with Derek Barnett starting at RDE. That, of course, leaves Michael Bennett and Chris Long coming off the bench in the very formidable rotation.
But even with all that depth, Graham is obviously a huge part of this team as he enters the final year of his contract.
By the way, he was cool with Schwartz comparing him to a caged lion.
“He just knows that I love to play football,” Graham said. “It’s pretty cool because I don’t take it bad. I know exactly what he means. Yesterday, I was excited. I was out there, talking, being me.”