Eagles linebacker Brandon Graham hopes to enter next season as a starter in Bill Davis' system or elsewhere.
Brandon Graham has a fairly simple goal heading into his fifth NFL season, he wants to begin the season as a starter.
Graham, a permanent resident in Earl Thomas' shadow after the Eagles chose him ahead of the dominant Seattle Seahawks safety chosen out of the University of Texas one pick later at 14 overall, hopes to accomplish his goal in Philadelphia but that may or may not be possible.
The 25-year old spent this season transitioning from being a 4-3 defensive end, which is his natural position, to outside linebacker in Bill Davis' 3-4 front.
Because of his size, 265 pounds, Graham isn't big enough to play defensive end in Davis' scheme and was on the field for under 30 percent of the Eagles snaps this season.
In spite of limited playing time, the University of Michigan product finished 2013 with four sacks which was good for third on the team.
Even with those obstacles, Graham is going into this offseason determined to have a bigger impact in 2014.
"I think I can get those reps here," Graham pointed out on getaway day Monday sitting at his Novacare Complex locker. "I'm going to go hard this offseason. I'm hoping to come back at 250 (pounds), I want to really show them that this is what I can do, this is what I'm gonna do and when the time comes (to build a depth chart), they're going to see what I can do."
Graham is signed for two more years at $1.6705 million in 2014 and $1.5 million in 2015. Those are big numbers for a guy who plays less than 30 percent of the defensive snaps.
Regardless of whether the Eagles see enough improvement over the course of the offseason to keep Graham on the roster or ultimately wind up trading or releasing him, he hopes this team can build on the momentum of the second half that saw the defense hold it's opponents under 23 points in 10 of the final 12 games of the year.
"We can ride that momentum into next year and I hope they keep the majority of us," Graham said. "The chemistry of this team is real nice. I hope that upstairs, they draft good guys who keep the personality here."
The Eagles have plenty of difficult decisions to make as they build the roster heading into Chip Kelly's second year but it appears Graham hopes to let his play and improvement wind up making their decision about him easy to make.
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
