Brandon Graham opens up on why coaching changes were necessary for Eagles

The question had nothing to do with last year’s coaching staff. That’s just where Brandon Graham took it.

B.G. was asked Wednesday about what life is like around the NovaCare Complex without Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox, and at first he began talking about Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis and how good new defensive line coach Clint Hurtt has been for them — “They’ve got a good coach in Clint, and I really think that last year, that’s what we didn’t have.”

Then he went off.

Graham, now entering his franchise-record 15th season with the Eagles, didn’t mention any coaches by name, but it’s easy to figure out who he was talking about.

The Eagles after the season replaced both defensive coordinators — Sean Desai and Matt Patricia — as well as defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, linebackers coach D.J. Eliot and secondary coach D.J. McDonald from the defensive coaching staff, as well as some assistant position coaches.

Veteran Vic Fangio is the Eagles’ fourth defensive coordinator in the last three years.

“I really think that last year, we didn’t have all the right coaches in the right position, I would say,” Graham said. “You can just see the guys (now) truly believing in what we’ve got going on, and I’m excited for the young guys that just came in and new rookies coming in because they’re really going to get a good shot and good taste of what it what it really is to be in the NFL.

“You just noticed little stuff last year, certain stuff we weren’t on the same page about. Just here and there, it will pop up, but it popped up in a big way that last game (playoff loss in Tampa). And it was just like, anything I learned, you always want to make sure that we just have the proper communication, so there’s a real big communication going on right now within the locker room, on the field, in the classrooms. 

“And I know Howie was going to get it fixed. Because once you notice, you just have to deal with it during the year. That’s how it is. But I don’t see none of that at all. I’m more excited because we do have Fangio, somebody experienced, real good. I’m not saying anything about the past, but it was just more like you could just tell that everybody is on the same page about stuff.”

The Eagles finished last year 26th in yards allowed, 29th in points allowed, 31st in pass defense, 31st on third down, 29th in the red zone and 24th in sacks. Patricia replaced Desai with the Eagles 10-3 and things got worse, with the Eagles losing three of their last four and then allowing 32 points in the wild-card loss to the Buccaneers.

B.G. credited the organization — Howie Roseman in particular — for understanding just how much change was needed and making moves both with the coaching staff and the roster to try to get the Eagles back to respectability on defense.

“He’s the wizard, I’d say,” Graham said. “Trying to figure it out, where we went wrong, being honest, having those hard conversations and not scared to make certain moves to make sure that when you got a good team like we did and good players, sometimes it doesn’t always reflect that because of us not being on the same page sometimes. 

“That’s the difference in professional sports. All it takes is one person to mess up on an assignment and then it costs us the game, stuff like that. … 

“I think he did a good job of just bringing the guys in, really bringing some real good coaches. And yeah, I’m excited to see where we go.”

When he was done, Graham walked off the stage, laughed and said, “All right, y’all, don’t get me in trouble.”