Jason Kelce has retired and Fletcher Cox is considering it.
But nothing is going to keep Brandon Graham from coming back for a record 15th season in an Eagles uniform.
B.G. has agreed to terms of a one-year contract extension, the Eagles announced Saturday morning.
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Graham, who turns 36 next month, will become the first player in franchise history to play 15 seasons. Chuck Bednarik played 14 from 1949 through 1962 and several – Kelce, Brian Dawkins, Harold Carmichael, Bucko Kilroy and Vic Sears – played 13.
Graham has already played in more games than anybody in franchise history – 195 in the regular season and 11 more in the postseason.
When he plays in his fifth game next year, he’ll become only the second active player to play 200 games for the same team. Cameron Jordan has played 209 games for the Saints.
Although Graham is everything you want as a leader, mentor to younger players and voice of reason when times get challenging, he’s also still an effective player.
NFL
Graham averaged 23 snaps a game last year and had 3 sacks, 6 quarterback hits and 4 tackles for loss a year after recording a career-high 11 sacks and finishing fourth in AP Comeback Player of the Year balloting.
Graham ranks fourth in franchise history with 73.0 sacks, trailing only Reggie White (124), Trenton Cole (85 ½) and Clyde Simmons (76). Cox has 70.
All that despite not even becoming a starter until his sixth season. Graham, the 13th pick in the 2010 draft, had only 17 sacks his first five NFL seasons before finally figuring out the NFL game.
Graham recorded one of the biggest plays in franchise history when he sacked Tom Brady with 2:16 left in Super Bowl LII and the Eagles leading 38-33. Derek Barnett recovered, and minutes later the Eagles had secured their only Super Bowl championship.
B.G. has always said he wanted to play 15 years and now he’ll get his wish.
He told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark on his Takeoff podcast earlier this week he believes he can still contribute.
“Keep going one more year, for sure. I still feel like I can do it,” Graham said. “Because it’s a grind, though. I understand exactly what Kelce is talking about, man. I do understand sometimes you don’t get that full recovery that you normally do.
“But he is playing full-time too. So his case is a lot different than me. I’m only playing 20-plus snaps a game. He’s playing a majority of the snaps in the game because that’s normally how O-linemen go. But I do know it might have took him a little longer to recover than normal.”
If Cox does retire, Graham and Lane Johnson will be the only position players on the roster who were here before 2018. The only other players currently on the roster in their 30s are 32-year-old Darius Slay and 30-year-old James Bradberry.
“It’s going to be me and Lane, me and Lane,” Graham said. “I think Fletch is on the fence for good reason. He play a lot, plays the majority of the snaps too. And recovery is definitely different for those guys because they’ve been playing at high levels for so many years, too.”
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