Eagles news: A.J. Brown’s comments caught by Fox; Brandon Graham returning to the Birds

Seven months after he gave a tear-filled speech announcing his retirement following 15 seasons with the Eagles, Brandon Graham is set rejoin the team, league sources told The Inquirer.

Momentum toward a deal was building over the weekend, and league sources confirmed to The Inquirer Sunday that the wheels were on motion for Graham’s return to football.

Graham on Monday night posted on social media a teaser to a Tuesday morning announcement that he’ll make on his podcast, Brandon Graham Unblocked. PHLY Sports, which hosts Graham’s podcast, said a deal was agreed to Monday.

When the Eagles lined up for their first Tush Push Sunday, the Vikings showed a new wrinkle the Eagles hadn't yet seen as NFL teams try to stop the play the Eagles are so good at.

The Vikings had linebacker Tyler Batty lie down in front of Cam Jurgens.

The Eagles' first attempt was a successful push, though it was close. They lined up to run the play once more, and the Vikings did the same thing, but A.J. Brown jumped offsides and the Eagles were forced to back up.

Nick Sirianni said the Eagles will treat this game week like it's any other game, though he did say it was a "unique" game week for the Eagles considering they played the Giants 12 days before game planning for them was again due to begin.

"It’s a unique game in that you play a team a second time, and it’s even more unique that it’s been one game of games since then," Sirianni said.

"You have things that you look at because it’s slightly different, but nothing changes in respect to your process. You still have a week to prepare. All the things, business as usual. But we’ll have some things that we look at as coaches knowing that we just played them and we know they will as well."

Nick Sirianni said he hadn't yet met with the Eagles' medical team when he spoke via Zoom with reporters late Monday afternoon but planned to later in the day — not that the Eagles' head coach would have revealed much about the status of center Cam Jurgens a day after Jurgens left the Eagles' 28-22 win in Minneapolis with a right knee injury.

Jurgens appeared to suffer the injury on the first play of the game and wore a brace during the team's second offensive possession. By the third drive, Brett Toth was in at center.

Toth said after the game that Jurgens would have an MRI.

Before Sunday, former Eagles coach Andy Reid had 304 NFL wins, including playoffs. He’d won three Super Bowls and he’d coached in three more.

But he’d never had a shutout.

Then on Sunday he faced Pete Carroll and the injury-depleted Raiders in Kansas City and won, 31-0.

While one former defensive end, Brandon Graham, mulls a comeback, another, Chris Long, is still hesitant about the Birds despite the win, after even an improved offense had to leg it out against a backup quarterback in Wentz. 

“This is a definite step in the right direction when it comes to the big-play ability of the offense,” Long said. “You’d love to see them play with more rhythm. I’m not sitting up here hating on a win on the road, but I would like to see a little bit more consistency. If you play like that against a major league quarterback, it might not go that way.”

Wentz finished 313 yards and a pair of interceptions through the air, and another 28 yards on the ground.

The Eagles and the New York Giants have already met this season in a Week 6 matchup that resulted in a 34-17 loss for the Eagles.

Heading into their last matchup, the Birds were coming off of their first loss of the season to the Denver Broncos. Four days later, in a quick turnaround, they traveled to MetLife Stadium to compete against the Giants on Thursday Night Football.

After two consecutive losses, the Eagles have returned to the win column with a win over the Minnesota Vikings in a game that saw Hurts throw for 326 yards and three touchdowns in a fantastic performance with his two star receivers, who each exceeded 100 yards.

Jalyx Hunt was unaware, or at least acted like he was, that Brandon Graham may be nearing a return to the Eagles. Perhaps the edge rusher was locked in before the game and didn’t see the social media reports.

But after the Eagles won on Sunday — a victory Hunt had a big role in — Hunt was asked if he had seen the reports that “BG is considering a return to football, a return to the Eagles.”

“Brandon Graham?” Hunt replied. “Shout out BG. Shout out BG.”

The Eagles wanted to run the ball. They wanted to emerge from the mini-bye — just like they had after breaks in previous seasons — with a ground-focused offensive attack.

They just couldn’t.

But it didn’t matter, ultimately, at least on this day. Jalen Hurts and the drop-back pass game delivered the kind of explosive performance that has mostly been lacking from the offense this season, the kind needed after a two-game losing streak had even the Eagles doubting themselves.

Three Eagles players exited the game due to injury in the first quarter — center Cam Jurgens (knee), edge rusher Azeez Ojulari (hamstring), and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (ankle).

All three players were ruled out in the third quarter.

Jurgens played just two drives in the first quarter, then Brett Toth took over at center for the rest of the game. His status for next week's Giants game is uncertain.

Comments made by A.J. Brown are making the rounds again, but this time they're cloaked in an Eagles' victory.

After Brown scored his second touchdown during Sunday's win against the Minnesota Vikings, Fox's camera picked up the star wide receiver venting a bit about his last of production in recent weeks.

"Just throw me the f— ball!" Brown shouted.

The Eagles (5-3) will face the New York Giants (2-5) for the second time in three weeks Sunday, this time at the Linc.

The Giants easily handled the Eagles in Week 6 on a Thursday night game (on the same night the Phillies were eliminated from the playoffs). This time around, New York is coming off a last-second loss to the Denver Broncos, who scored 33 points in the fourth quarter after being held scoreless through three quarters.

“This is going to haunt us for a long time,” Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger told reporters after the game.