Brandon Graham brought the same old ‘juice’ in his first practice back with the Eagles

The Eagles who were around before this season knew what to expect when Brandon Graham rejoined the team for his first practice Wednesday after coming out of retirement earlier this week.

The newbies had only heard the stories. Maybe they had met Graham in passing. Fellow edge rusher Joshua Uche recalled swapping jerseys with Graham after an Eagles-Patriots game in 2023. But when Uche joined the Eagles, it was in part because Graham was no longer with the team. “I just missed him,” Uche said.

Graham had been around the NovaCare Complex before this week and had been working out, but this week he’s back in the meeting rooms and on Wednesday he went through his first practice. The Eagles tried to fill the void he left behind when Graham retired from football in March. They signed veterans like Uche, Azeez Ojulari, and Ogbo Okoronkwo in the offseason. They then added an even more experienced veteran in Za’Darius Smith after Week 1. But Smith, 33, lasted only five games before hanging up the cleats himself.

Nothing could really replace all of the things Graham brought. And on Wednesday, make no mistake about it, Graham was back.

“The energy he brings, the leadership he brings, and the juice he brings out there on the field, we needed that part of the engine back,” Uche said.

» READ MORE: What to expect from Brandon Graham? Here’s how other NFL players who unretired fared.

Uche said Graham practiced normally and went through the day just like any other player in the position room.

“It feels good today,” Graham said, still dressed in his pads outside his old locker stall after practice, the same stall recently vacated by Smith. “I’ll just say that. I ain’t going to go too crazy. But I felt good.”

Graham, who was listed as a full participant on the Eagles’ practice report, said he didn’t feel too far away from being in football shape because he has spent the last few months working out, many times at NovaCare. He did joke that he tapped his helmet to come out after only a few plays. Is he in good enough shape to play Sunday vs. the New York Giants?

“We’re going to see, man,” Graham said. “I’m going to let Coach do that. Honestly, I’m just here to continue to keep affirming everybody with what they are and their ability.”

How and when Graham performs remains to be seen, but that part — the leadership and the positive energy — should have an immediate impact.

“It was a vibe, man,” rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell said of his first practice with Graham. “That’s the OG. I was fortunate enough to have a relationship with him outside of being here in his early retirement, I guess you could say. He brings nothing but positive vibes, man, great energy to the brotherhood that we have here. He’s just an all-around great dude. He’s like a guy where it’s like, you look at him and you smile and you got to say what’s up. He never has bad intentions, he’s never talking about nothing negative, he’s always going to bring you up.”

And the trash-talking?

“It’s safe to say it ain’t no act,” Campbell said. “That’s just organic, exactly who he is, and I saw it for myself.”

» READ MORE: Brandon Graham says he didn’t want to retire — and this isn’t the first time the Eagles tried to bring him back

Campbell said it didn’t seem like Graham had been away from football “for three months or however long it was.”

It was seven, but Graham said he knew he “wasn’t all the way done.” He was hoping the Eagles wouldn’t need him, but opportunity knocked as injuries piled up and Smith stepped away from the game. The Eagles reached out to him, and he and his wife, Carlyne, agreed it was right.

Graham said he told his teammates that he’s “here to give you affirmations every day and work hard and let’s all be professionals and try to build this thing and get us another one.

“It don’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish.”

Graham knows that well, both from the perspective of the totality of his career — a draft bust who turned into the franchise’s all-time leader in games played — and in the micro sense of last season, when the Eagles started slowly and eventually won the Super Bowl.

Graham retired on top. He cried and gave a heartfelt speech next to two Super Bowl trophies. As far as storybook endings go, he had a perfect one after making a surprising return from injury to play in the Super Bowl in February.

“Reality set in,” Graham said. “That story book will still be there, but reality set in. I still had the urge, and of course, I felt like I was still on my game last year. I still feel like I could help the team. If I didn’t feel like that, I wouldn’t be back and Howie [Roseman] wouldn’t have picked me up.”

There is the risk that the ending to that story changes, and it’s something Graham said he talked about with Carlyne.

“When you think about it, when Tom Brady and all them boys came back, you still say he got seven rings and he’s still going to tell the story,” Graham said. “If I still feel like I can play, why not?

“I just feel like I still got a duty to come in and help because I feel like I still got a lot of juice left.”

The Eagles, new and old, got a taste of that Wednesday.