Brandon Graham Part of NFL History, Notches First Double-Digit Sack Season
PHILADELPHIA – What Brandon Graham accomplished cannot get lost in a loss.
It was 13 years in the making, but the veteran Eagles defensive end finally did it. He reached double-digits in sacks on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.
Graham didn’t stop at 10, which was the team’s 63rd of the season which broke the 33-year-old team record of 62. He collected his 11th later in the game.
“It’s a great feeling, I’m not going to lie, to finally get over that hump,” he said. “I thought I was going to be stuck there for a minute.”
Graham is also part of an NFL record. He is a member of a group of four players on the same team that have recorded double figures in sacks, joining Haason Reddick (16), Javon Hargrave (11), and Josh Sweat (11) with 10-plus.
He was pushed into a larger role on Sunday after Josh Sweat suffered a frightening neck injury with 9:19 to play in the opening quarter that landed him in the hospital, and played 51 snaps (74%), his highest total of the season. Graham's previous high was 34 on Nov. 14.
“I know I’m going to be sore (Monday), but you know what, it felt good as far as doing something special, breaking the record, four people having double digits,” he said.
Reaching double figures in sacks for the first time in his 13th season may not seem like any great shakes for a former first-round pick out of the 2010 draft class, the 13th player taken overall, but that’s what makes it so special. He came from the 2010 draft class.
With all due respect, that makes him a dinosaur in a sport that flushes out the old – if you can call 30-somethings old – with young 20-somethings year in and year out.
Graham was the first of 13 picks the Eagles made in 2010.
The others were Nate Allen, Daniel Te’o Nesheim, Trevard Lindley, Keenan Clayton, Mike Kafka, Clay Harbor, Ricky Sapp, Riley Cooper, Charles Scott, Jamar Chaney, Jeff Owens, and Kurt Coleman, in that order.
It’s a class that produced some terrific pass rushers in No. 15 overall pick Jason Pierre-Paul, who has three sacks with the Ravens this year, and No. 31 overall pick Jerry Hughes, who has nine sacks this year with the Texans.
Pierre-Paul has 94.5 career sacks; Hughes has 67.
Both players are on their third teams, however.
Graham has been an Eagle his entire career and has 70 career sacks, which makes him one of just four players in franchise history to amass at least 70 sacks, joining Reggie White (124), Trent Cole (85.5), and Clyde Simmons (76).
It’s also special because Graham, now 34, overcame a torn Achilles’ last year.
He should win the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year.
“It’s so good for BG,” said longtime teammate and friend Fletcher Cox, who has 65 career sacks. “We talk about it all the time, obviously we’re locker mates and we always talk about goals and things you want to get done in your career and what’s important.
“I always told him it’s just going to take time and I get really emotional for him because I know how hard he’s been working and how hard so many people counted him out after coming back from that Achilles’ injury, it’s really big for a guy that’s in his 13th season.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
