A first-round draft pick in 2010, Graham is in an unsettling spot. He is 12 months out from microfracture surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and he is a spare part in the Eagles' defensive end rotation picture. The team leads the league with 49 quarterback sacks under defensive line coach Jim Washburn's tutelage and defensive coordinator Juan Castillo's scheme.
Jason Babin is second in the NFL with 18 sacks. Trent Cole has 10. The defensive end situation has not been this healthy in many, many years.
And yet Graham is looking for his niche. He has played in just three games and has 4 total tackles and a single quarterback hurry to his credit in the eight weeks during which he has been on the active roster.
This isn't the way things were supposed to go for Graham, the standout from Michigan whom the Eagles drafted after trading up 11 spots in the first round two Aprils ago. He was their top-rated defensive end, and after his remarkable performance at the Senior Bowl practices, Graham was apparently the top-rated end on many teams' draft boards.
Graham earned a starting job as a rookie, lost it, and then was in and out of the lineup in his 13 games, with 6 starts. Numbers wise, Graham posted 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles. Functionally, he showed flashes of the great burst the Eagles saw in college, and they were excited about his progress.
Then Graham tore up his knee in the December win at Dallas, and a career path changed.
A load road to recovery following the surgery suffered the setback that was the NFL's work stoppage, which shut players out from rehabilitation with their team athletic trainers. No matter how hard Graham worked on his own, it just wasn't the same.
And instead of maybe being ready for practice in the summer, Graham was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list for the opening half of the regular season.
He still isn't all the way back physically.
"I know what I can do, and the Eagles know what I can do," he says. "It's just a matter of getting right physically."
Let's hope so. Let's hope the Graham the Eagles thought they drafted is the one who takes advantage of the next four months and attacks his continued recovery. In many ways, Graham represents the tenuous state of the Eagles' future: He has great promise and is a player in whom the Eagles invested a lot. Graham needs to be a great player, to deliver on his upside.
The young man is acutely aware of the world around him, and knows that critics are comparing him to Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, a dynamic player drafted a couple of spots after Graham. Pierre-Paul was named earlier this week to the NFC's Pro Bowl team and has been a dominating player this season.
It is a comparison that won't ever stop. Three ends were taken high in that draft -- Graham, Pierre-Paul and Derrick Morgan, who went to Tennessee and who has also battled the injury bug. The Eagles moved up in the first round to jump all over Graham.
Expectations, obviously, are high for Graham.
"I'm motivated," he said. "I'm working hard to make it back, and get back to doing what I do. That's my approach. Everything everyone says about it, I'm going to remember it and use it to motivate me. I'm going to get after it."
Does Graham get a free pass for 2011? It's hard to expect any player to come back from such a serious surgery in a year's time. The Eagles clearly anticipated Graham's recovery progress and went and signed Babin in free agency after adding CFL star Phillip Hunt prior to the work stoppage. They were prepared for Graham's slow return to the lineup.
The next several months are critical, however. Graham needs to be a factor in the spring and in the summer. He must return to the NovaCare Complex ripped, in the best shape of his life, ready to make his mark in the NFL.
This is a crossroads, then, for Graham. An early one in his career, for sure, and forced on him by the injury. Waiting for players to perform is not an option in the fast-paced world of the NFL. Graham, in the midst of a very difficult 12 months of his life, has a huge challenge ahead of him.
