Michigan's Graham Goes In 1st Round!!!

Today was one of the biggest days in Brandon Graham's life.  The DE from the University of Michigan didn't have to wait too long tonight to find out where he would continue his football career.  In a surprising trade the Philadelphia Eagles traded two 3rd round picks (70th and 87th overall) to the Denver Broncos to move up from 24th to the 13th pick in order to take Graham. Philadelphia coach Andy Reid was quoted saying "The thing we like to have with Brandon is he's a relentless player, I think the combination of Brandon and our other defensive linemen, Trent Cole and so on, the addition of (Darryl) Tapp, and (Juqua Parker) and (Victor) Abiamiri, it's a great combination of guys right there. Really, we went into this off-season wanting to better ourselves on the defensive line and we think that this helps us out and the thing I know with a good defensive line is it makes everyone around them better. So when you have a defensive line that's getting after it, all of a sudden the corners look a little better and the safeties look a little better and the linebackers look a little better. That's why we made this move."  "I haven't been around a lot of players that played harder than Trent Cole," Reid said. "That's the way (Graham) played at that level, at the college level. We'll see what he does here." 

Reid made it clear that the Eagles had been targeting Graham all along, and they felt the need to move to No. 13 because they feared someone else might snatch up the Wolverine. They may have been right, as two of the next three picks following the Graham selection, including a pick by the division-rival Giants, were defensive ends.  It was rumored that the Eagles were in talks to move up for a defensive end. But Graham's name was never mentioned in those reports. And Graham was just as surprised that he will don midnight green. Other than a 15-minute interview at the Combine and, according to Graham, a couple of talks with scouts, the Eagles did not show extensive interest.

"Never in a million years did I think Philadelphia was coming for me," Graham said. "That makes me feel very good and know that I have a lot of responsibility because you know if they're going to trade up for me then they're expecting a lot from me. I'm going to give them what they're looking for. I just appreciate the opportunity to be a Philadelphia Eagle."



Congratulations to Brandon and we wish him the best in his NFL career.