Season, career may be over for Eagles DE Brandon Graham (triceps)

Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham’s slide Sunday night ended with the 15-year veteran contemplating football mortality with a triceps injury he expects to end his 2024 season.

Graham, who previously said this would be his last year in the league, moved into third on the Eagles’ all-time sacks list with a second-quarter takedown of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, but left the game injured in the second half.

“I’m trusting God, so I’m just enjoying myself,” Graham said. “I’m enjoying this little rehab and I’m enjoying leading this team for the rest of the year. As soon as I can be out there, I want to be out there.

“Man, boy, man, boy, I had fun out there. And we’re still going to have fun. But I’m out a year.”

Graham was fired in the career no. 76.5 to move ahead of Clyde Simmons behind only Trent Cole and Reggie White on the Eagles’ all-time sack list. The 36-year-old is 9.0 sacks shy of tying Cole (85.5) and has played in every game of his career — a franchise-record 206 — with the Eagles since being drafted in 2010.

Graham will be placed on injured reserve, but said his day-to-day duty to the Eagles as captain and voice in the defensive line meeting room will not change. As for where he goes from here, he wasn’t ready to say Sunday night. But Graham appeared to be opening the door for a 16th NFL season.

“I felt good,” Graham said. “I hated to go like this, but at the end of the day I have no regrets. I’m putting it all in today, just like I do every week. We’re going from here. I hope we’re holding that trophy regardless.

“I don’t want to go out like that, but if it points in that direction, then we’ll see. I don’t know what the team will feel at that point, but for me, I don’t want to go out like this. I will definitely be able to finish a full season before I’m done, but if that’s not in the cards, I’m happy where I’m at as well.

The fourth defensive lineman drafted in 2010 behind Ndamukong Suh (Lions), Gerald McCoy (Buccaneers) and Tyson Alualu (Jaguars), Graham was the 13th overall pick in the draft. He turns 37 in April, but is not the oldest active defensive player in the NFL this season. Dolphins defensive end Calais Campbell turned 38 in September.

Graham had 3.5 sacks in 2024 after posting 3.0 in 17 games last season. He had double-digit sacks just once (11 in 2022), but authored one of the most significant defensive plays in franchise history with a strip-sack of Tom Brady in the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII win.

–Field-level media