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Brandon Graham returns to Eagles practice

🚦 THE Philly sports newsletter

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Philip Keidel & John Foley
January 31, 2025

© Eric Hartline | 2024 Oct 13

Brandon Graham strip sacking Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LIX is going to hit so unbelievably hard.

We can dream, anyway. The good news for now is that BG is back at practice with the Birds.

In the email today:

💪 Brandon Graham returns to Eagles practice

It’s the stuff of movies: The grizzled veteran returns just in time to leave it all on the field in one final game.

Brandon Graham is 36. He’s the longest-tenured Philadelphia Eagle, drafted by the club with the 13th overall pick in April 2010. To put that in perspective, Jeremiah Trotter (the original) played his final game with the Birds in January of that same year.

Graham was labeled a bust early in his career, but by 2016 he was a second-team All-Pro. In the 2017 regular season, he racked up 9.5 sacks and 15 tackles for loss. And in that season’s Super Bowl… well, you already know.

Graham was having a strong 2024, but in Week 12 he suffered a torn triceps in a game against the Rams. The injury ended his regular season, and was expected to end his career.

But Thursday, with the Birds nine days away from Super Bowl LIX, Graham was back out on the field for practice. He was limited to individual reps, but expects to get team reps on Friday. And there’s a good chance he’ll be able to play for the Birds in New Orleans.

Does BG have one more big play in him? Will he be remembered as the guy who sacked Tom Brady to lock up the Eagles’ first Super Bowl victory and the guy who sacked Patrick Mahomes to lock up their second?

We’ll soon find out how this movie ends.

🏒 Flyers start selling by trading Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to Calgary

The Flyers traded Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to the Calgary Flames immediately after Thursday’s game. In exchange, they received forwards Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, as well as a 2025 second round draft pick and a 2028 seventh round draft pick.

The Flyers now have seven picks in the first two rounds of the 2025 draft.

Kuzmenko was signed as an undrafted free agent from the KHL by the Vancouver Canucks prior to the 2022-23 season. He made a huge splash with the Canucks, scoring 39 goals and 74 points in 81 games in his first year in the NHL, but has been more pedestrian since then.

Pelletier was a first round pick by the Flames (26th overall) in 2019. He has only played in 61 games in the NHL over parts of three seasons, with eight goals and 13 assists.

Our colleague Anthony SanFilippo reports on additional motivation behind the deal:

According to team sources the Flyers wanted to get out from behind Farabee's contract. He was in the third year of a six-year, $30 million contract with an AAV of $5 million. By swapping that for Kuzmenko's shorter deal, the Flyers bought themselves $5 million in cap space in each of the next two seasons.

Check out Ant’s full discussion of the trade here.

Farabee, who turns 25 in February, has 19 points in 50 games this season.

Frost, 25, has 25 points in 49 games this season. He is in the second year of a $4.2 million contract with an AAV of $2.1 million. He will be a restricted free agent in the summer, but sources said the Flyers weren't interested in signing him to a new deal.

Both players were very well liked in the locker room, which a source said took the trade news hard. The locker room now has to wonder who else the Flyers may move on from before the March 7 trade deadline. Names like Scott Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen have been out there for multiple seasons, and there is interest in both. But, could the Flyers also look to move depth forwards like Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway? What about Cam York, who has taken a step backwards this season after a promising campaign in 2023-24?

With the exception of Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim, it's safe to assume all the cards are on the table for GM Danny Briere.

🇷🇺 Michkov in doghouse again, Flyers shut out again

Normally, the Flyers scoring zero goals in 120 minutes over two nights would be the lede here.

But there’s nothing to say about the Flyers’ toothless offense, and you can’t pin the loss on goaltender Ivan Fedotov when he’s facing two-on-none breakaways. The Flyers were booed off the ice. Enough said.

So we have to talk (again) about John Tortorella and his ongoing “mentoring” of star rookie Matvei Michkov.

A lot of fans paid for tickets to last night’s game against the Islanders in large part to watch Michkov play. They got their wish for exactly 8:30 of ice time.

Ironically, the night started with great promise for the young star. Michkov lit the lamp at the 14:05 mark of the first period, only to see the goal waved off for interference.

Sweet turned further sour for Michkov as the game wore on. The Islanders’ first goal came at least in part because Michkov left the defensive zone too early, and apparently Tortorella had seen enough.

The decision to bench Michkov left the Flyers down one forward. Then Morgan Frost was pulled from the game because of the trade.

So the Flyers ended up playing down two forwards and, eventually, three goals en route to their second impotent loss in two nights.

Flyers fans took to social media to voice their displeasure with the Michkov benching and the generally unappealing product the Flyers continue to trot out.

The Flyers do not play again until Sunday afternoon in Colorado. Hopefully, the bad feelings and bad taste left by the last 48 hours will have abated by then.

⚠️ Seriously do not start any 💩 with Duce Staley

There are fake tough guys and there are real tough guys. Former Eagle player and coach Duce Staley is a real one. ⚠️ 

We were reminded of this yesterday when another former Eagle, Golden Tate, shared this anecdote about an unnamed Eagles offensive lineman getting into it with Staley:

We’d pay the money in our wallets to know which of the OL’s decided it was a good idea to start trouble with Staley. The man posted 1,000 yard rushing seasons on Eagles teams that went 3-13 in 1998 and 5-11 in 1999. He was getting those yards himself.

But if all that isn’t good enough for you, Phil has a personal story relevant to the topic:

March of 2016 I had to fly to Columbia, SC for a trial. While boarding the flight I saw Duce Staley get on the plane. That computed since he’s a Gamecock.

Columbia was a small regional airport at the time, so passengers got off the plane and walked together on the tarmac into the terminal. An Eagle running back (you can probably guess who) had just had a very disappointing season, and I wanted to know why. “Mr. Staley, can I please ask you a question? Mr. Staley? Duce?”

He didn’t hear me initially. “That’s how you come up on me, huh? Duce?” He was pissed. I’m not a small guy, but I thought I might actually have a problem. Staley is built like a tank. I started legitimately stammering and apologizing.

Thankfully, three other passengers defended me and said I had called him “Mr. Staley” and had said “please.” That eased the tension, and let’s just say the answer to my question was not complimentary to the player in question.

Phil Keidel

Anyway, we’re very pro-Duce Staley here at On Pattison and we wish him nothing but health, happiness and success.

And we’ll never bother him again.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On January 31, 2002, Harry the K received some well-earned recognition.

📊 Poll

As spring training nears, how does this year's Phillies roster compare to last year's?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Results from Thursday:

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Friday, January 31, 2025

  • Sixers vs. Nuggets, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Sunday, February 2, 2025

  • Sixers vs. Celtics, 6:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you Monday.

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