Brandon Graham may be showing flecks of gray in his beard and hair, but his eyesight is still good enough to see what’s coming for him. It’s the young guys, Tarron Jackson and Patrick Johnson, in particular.
“Seeing these young guys, man, you start to see a little bit of the writing on the wall that these boys are alright,” said Graham following Monday’s practice at NovaCare Complex.
“Like Patrick Johnson, Tarron, and them boys been getting better every day, just taking to coaching, seeing their technique get better and better, and me just pouring into them guys every chance that I get.”
Eventually, this is what happens to the NFL’s “senior citizens,” those players on the other side of 30. They begin to groom their replacements. It’s simply the natural order of things, and Graham, 34, and Fletcher Cox, 31, are receptive to doing just that.
The new CBA, which limits the amount of time teams can hit and practice, has helped extend the career of the NFL's 30-somethings, and Graham told a story about the difference between when he arrived in 2010 to now.
He said he and teammate Nate Allen would sit in the hot tub during then-coach Andy Reid's two-a-day, three-hour practices.
"It was just like, ‘I can’t believe that we’ve been doing this 2 weeks straight, same practice 3 hours, then another 3 hours,'" said Graham. "I think it’s so different these days where I feel like I can play as long as they allow me to play. If I start to see myself falling off, I’m not going to be scared to say, ‘You know what? It is what it is.’
"If that’s this year, or next year or whenever, I’m going to be real with myself and make that transition to take it to the next level of whatever else I want to do. It’s just a new day and a lot of guys are going to play longer than normal because of the type of scheduling that we go through nowadays."
Cox talked on Monday about he will sometimes sit in the back of the meeting room and take a look around.
In front of him are Jordan Davis, 22, Milton Williams, 23, and Marlon Tuipulotu, 23.
“(Davis) was probably in middle school or something when I got drafted,” said Cox. “You just take it all in, enjoy it, and try to pass all the knowledge down to those guys.”
Cox seems to be getting more wistful with each passing year.
He told a story about a conversation he recently had with assistant coach Jeremiah Washburn.
“I was like, ‘Man, 11 years, my 11th training camp,’” Cox said. “It kind of makes you think about it and you appreciate it so much. You look at all the young guys and they ask you, ‘How many years you been doing it?’ I say, ‘11.’ They say, ‘Wow.’ I say, ‘Man, I’m very blessed and humbled to be here.’”
Cox, though, isn't ready to concede to Father Time, yet.
"I’ve proven to be one of the best D-tackles in the game," he said. "I don’t feel I lost a step or anything. I can still take over a game like I have been doing, like I’m known to do. So, you enjoy it, and you have fun with it for as long as you can."
More must-reads: