PHILADELPHIA — Brandon Graham spent the early part of the 2010s mired in uncertainty about his football future. The former first-round pick lost an early season to injury, and then the Eagles defensive end ended up watching from the bench for a good portion of that time, too.
It wasn’t until his sixth season in the league that he became a full-time starter, and over the past five years, he’s thrived. So he knows what it’s like to be a player with expectations and to fall short. And he also knows that it’s possible for a second act or a comeback.
The Eagles benched quarterback Carson Wentz earlier this week in favor of rookie Jalen Hurts. There’s plenty of uncertainty surrounding Wentz’s future not only in Philadelphia, but also in the NFL. Graham has been in a similar, albeit less high-profile, scenario before. And during a Thursday morning Zoom call, Graham shared what his advice for Wentz would be.
“Try not to worry what people are going to say because only you know what’s going on and how you fix it,” Graham said. “And how you fix it is really working on the things that you need to get better at, and the things that tend to come up all the time. So for me, it’s, I need to get off the ball faster. I need to start doing that for myself. When people start to tell you what they see, from the outside in, it’s on you to make those decisions. Continue to keep on working hard. Continue to keep on building at where you’re weak at.
“You definitely know you can get to where you used to be because there’s a lot of confidence that we all still have in Carson. We’ve seen it. We know it’s just on him to go out and keep working like he does. So don’t worry about what the naysayers say. It doesn’t matter because you’re the one who can change what people are saying by how you work. That’s what kept me here, how hard I worked and how hard I tried to flip that negative and turn it into a positive.”
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On Wednesday, coach Doug Pederson said it was Wentz’s job to “embrace” and “understand” his current situation in order to make it the positive Graham mentioned. After he was benched in the Packers game, Wentz said he didn’t necessarily think sitting out would help him turn the season around.
But Wentz had been one of the NFL’s worst quarterbacks through the first three-quarters of the season, and there were few signs that he was on the cusp of turning his performance around.
Hurts will get his chance, and Pederson would not commit to a decision at quarterback beyond Sunday against the Saints.
Wentz could get another chance. Graham got chances later in his career after early struggles. It’s just on the quarterback to take advantage of them and turn his current predicament into a positive for his career.
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Daniel Gallen covers the Philadelphia Eagles for PennLive. He can be reached at dgallen@pennlive.com. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Follow PennLive’s Philadelphia Eagles coverage on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.