The guy with the target on his head going into training camp is former first-round draft pick Brandon Graham. If he doesn’t show that he’s ready to be productive, he could get traded or released, and he knows it. Right now I think he’s already got one foot out of the door.
“I haven’t done anything really,” Graham said yesterday to PhiladelphiaEagles.com. “Right now, I’m a bust, so I’m going to deal with that. I’m a bust and I’m going to keep being a bust, even when I make plays, I’m going to still act like I’m a bust, you know what I’m saying?”
I hope he wasn’t saying that for somebody to feel sorry for him because I don’t feel sorry for him. He was brought in here to produce and he knew it when he signed the contract and took the money.
The Eagles know their starters will be Jason Babin and Trent Cole. Darryl Tapp, Phillip Hunt, and rookie Vinny Curry will be battling Graham for playing time.
The Eagles don’t care anymore about the fact that they drafted him in the first round. They want production or they’re going to say goodbye.
Graham says he wasn’t in shape when he tried to come back a year ago.
“Coming back (last year), I still wasn’t as in shape as I needed to be,” Graham said. “But now, that’s not a problem at all. I just need to keep getting in game shape, even though by (training) camp you still won’t be in game shape.”
The former Michigan Wolverine thinks his experience in the Eagles system will help him going forward. I don’t buy it. Experience alone doesn’t mean anything. Graham is going to need to play like a hungry animal. I know that Tapp, Hunt, and Curry are hungry for playing time, so Graham will have to show that he’s just as hungry.
“Just getting a whole year and a half under my belt, now I don’t really think about my knee as I did when I was coming back,” he said. “That’s what I was doing a lot, I was favoring it. Now … I just go as hard as I can and just take it one day, just keep getting better.
“Having the full offseason is big because now I can sit in there and watch film and sit and look at myself from last year and my first year, the film that I do have. Just keep working on the little things that I need to work on from that year and last year.”
“Just going through that whole thing last year, not playing, I just grew as a person, that was number one,” he said. “I’ve moved on from it. Now it’s time for me to defend myself.”
Graham could help them because he can fill the role of a hybrid defensive player, who can put his hand down and effectively rush the passer, while also being able to drop in pass coverage. At his size and speed he should be able to play both the defensive end and outside linebacker positions.
I hope he’s grown as a football player as much as he says he’s grown as a person. It’s now or never for Graham as an Eagle.
Now thats what a middle linebacker looks like!
I’m a bust and I’m going to keep being a bust, even when I make plays, I’m going to still act like I’m a bust, you know what I’m saying?”
“Coming back (last year), I still wasn’t as in shape as I needed to be,”
I don’t know why this guy is confused. Show up in shape and make plays and you keep your job.
He will win a spot. With the injury he had, he will get every opportunity to stick. IMHO, Tapp is the one who needs to go. WTF did he do with his $4.5M contract. He blows. But, I agree with GCobb, STOP WHINING, THROWING DIGS AT EVERYONE, & PROVE YOU WERE WORTH YOUR DRAFT PICK! Nobody forced your dumb@$$, to go on a cheesesteak diet, when you were in rehabilitation, for your knee, & come back a fat pig. STFU, & prove your worth. If you are looking for sorrow, or a pity party here, in this city, you are already out of town. Especially when most fans, didn’t want you to begin with. I want nothing more, than for him to be good, but for the love of God, can’t these athletes just STFU!!! Bunch of soft sissy boy, Nancies! BOO HOO, WOO IS ME. STFU!!!
****REPORT****
Keenan Clayton underwent surgery for a sports hernia.
Well that makes him a non-factor. LB depth, just took a hit.
agree DCar
move graham the bum to middle linebacker and have demeco on the strongside….He do not stack up as an 4-3 D end.
give him some linebacker reps on cut his bum ass altogether…another waste when Earl Thomas was sitting right there and an actual DE JPP who was buit for 4-3…
This Graham bum probably would have excelled in a 3-4 alighnment but our smarter than everyone coach had to throw a curve ball.
G:
I look forward to this young man making you eat your words. You’ll be like Moe of the Three Stooges trying to pronounce Worcesteshire sauce: “A bibibibibibi Graham bibi Steak.” It is not time for this guy to be dismissed. Because EVERYONE has counted this guy out, I am all in for him! How DARE you? In shorts and shoulder pads? What are you thinking, G?
Songs, I told you to stop eating those paintchips. That post demonstrated an utter lack of inteligence. If you want to cut Graham because you think he’s a bad football player, then why do you want to move Ryans to Strongside thus leaving MLB unfilled by a good player. Are you allergic to thinking?
And if you think Graham is too small to play 4-3 DE, you’re a dumb ass because guys his size and even smaller have played and excelled at the 4-3 position. So saying that is saying stupid bullshit nonsense.
Sometimes I think you get out of bed and walk into the wall right next to your bedroom doorway, then recover, get to the bathroom and pee in the sink, then fall down the stairs because you forget how to walk. Judging your intelligence level by the way you post here, that’s how I imagine your everyday life is…
Songs, Graham is within an inch and a few pounds of Trent Cole, Dwight Freeney, Elvis Dumervil, and Vinny Curry for that matter. So your size thing would be a good argument, but it makes no sense.
For the scarecrow (songs) ——
Sheil Kapadia (Moving the Chains on Philly.com) –
“WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GRAHAM
We forget now, but Brandon Graham was not a bust in his rookie season. He had 13 QB hurries (second-most on the team to only Trent Cole) to go along with three sacks and two forced fumbles. In training camp that year, Graham was one of the team’s most impressive players, but he had some issues against the run once the games started and was used more as a rotational player, after beginning the season as a starter.
Before then, as a senior at Michigan, he had 9.5 sacks and led the nation with 25 tackles for loss.
Yesterday, the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari caught up with Graham, who is well aware of the “bust” label he currently carries with some. But to be fair, he’s not there yet.
The Rams selected defensive end Chris Long with the second pick in the 2008 draft. He had four sacks as a rookie. In the last two seasons, he’s totaled 21.5.
Even the player Graham is most often linked to, Jason Pierre-Paul, had just 4.5 sacks in his rookie season before exploding for 16.5 last season.
Graham has the entire offseason to work with one of the best defensive line coaches in the league in Jim Washburn. If he’s healthy, it’s reasonable to expect him to be a good part of this defensive line rotation in 2012. If that doesn’t happen, we can revisit the bust label after the season.”
3 big reasons for DE B Graham Slow Start in his NFL CAreer
#1) His Conditioning and especially his Cardio-Vascular constioing was not NFL Ready
#2) Eagles moved him inside at DT quite a bitm wanted him to put on weight where he does not have the long type of frame and not negatively impact his speed and explosion which is what his best strength is..
#3) He blew out his Knee late in his Rookie Season
Remember last Season, I stated that it would have been much better for Graham to be on IR all 2011 Season than being at 60-70% Heatlhy, mout of football shape and a insecure,beaton down psyche.. Bradon grsaham should have been put on the shlf all last season to focus in regaining his strenth and agility in that knee.. Now fast forward and he looks great so hopefully he hits camp with both feet on the ground and runnung, he has the talent and god-given ability to play in the NFL and play well, you don’t have the kind of career he had in Michigan in a the power Big 10 versus good competiition as a 3 year starter and not be a good football player… He will bounce back big
Paulman…..
Saying Graham will bounce back is insinuation that he actually did something before in the NFL.
I think the Eagles draft proved how much they believe in Graham….signing Babin last year to start over him also proved a whole lot.
If they believed he was the player they traded up to draft then Babin would be the backup….
The writing is on the wall for this wasted pick that should have been used or Earl Thomas.
“the pro bowler” Earl Thomas..
We weakened 2 position with the debacle called a draft….
2 busts in back to back
Graham and garbage as “Toast” Allen.
Tthe Eagles knew that 2011 was going to be a non-productive year
for Graham after having a late knee injury abnd Surgery.. Also Washburn also knows that Babin is a perfict fit for his scheme and Washburn and the Eagles as most teams know that you have to have 3-4-5 Solids DE’s for today’s passing happy NFL so acquiring Babin has nothing to do with Brandon Graham.
I hope he can bounce back and become the player that the FO thought he would be, but I’m betting against it. This team has bad luck when it comes to first round defensive linemen and I think Graham will likely be another example. Hindsight is always 20/20, but Pierre Paul would have looked good in eagle green.
🙂 🙂
Why are people rooting against this guy? I hope that he bounces back, because that would just add to an already strong group of DEs. I wish that they would have picked Earl Thomas too, but it’s over.
Songs – “Paulman…..
Saying Graham will bounce back is insinuation that he actually did something before in the NFL.”
SONGS – SAYING THAT IS INSINUATION that YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT DOING SOMETHING IN THE NFL MEANS.
Case and point.
Period.
You’ve just proven yourself to not understand football, thus rendering any future comments about it from you as worthless and stupid.
(cue staples commercial slogan “that was easy”)
Seeing more stories about Graham’s work this off season and how Washburn is impressed with how he performed during the first OTA.
Regardless of your feelings about the Birds jumping up in that draft to take him instead of JPP or Earl Thomas, that really is no fault of his. He was known for being a leader at Michigan and playing with a relentless style. I think the injury and criticism really set him back, and last year he was playing at a higher weight and a lack of confidence.
I see this being a BIG year for Graham. He has little pressure, outside what he puts on himself, playing behind Babin and Cole. I believe with Washburn coaching this talented group of D-linemen, we are going to see big things, with Graham suprising many who view him as “ass”.
GO BIRDS!!!