Vic Fangio offers some reassurance when it comes to Brandon Graham and what he can bring to the table

Philadelphia Eagles' longtime defensive end Brandon Graham is officially coming out of retirement to run it back for a 16th season.

Graham and the rest of the Eagles' staff have zero expectations as to what the 37-year-old can bring to the table, but they'll find out starting this week.

"We’ll see. You see what kind of shape he’s in, what kind of retention he has from last year," Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. "Shape comes in two forms. One, just your conditioning, but in football shape to contact shape. So hopefully, the sooner the better."

The good news is that Graham has been training since the day he initially announced his retirement, which should help him catch up to speed a lot faster.

Brandon Graham might not need a snap count

There are a lot of mixed feelings about Graham's return. Between his age and being away from football for several months, there is even some doubt. However, Fangio has been in this situation before, where things worked out very well for both parties.

"I don’t know," Fangio said when asked about Graham being on a snap count. "Now he’s coming out of retirement, and he’s older. But when I was in Chicago, we traded for [Chargers LB] Khalil Mack, who had missed the entire training camp, and the fatigue police said, ‘Hey, he can only play about 20-22 snaps in this game’, because we got him the week of the first game. I said, okay. He played about 45, so I don’t know."

It also helps that Graham is already confident in himself, that he has enough juice left.

Last fall, Graham recorded 3.5 sacks and 20 total tackles for the Eagles. He also racked up six tackles for loss and seven QB hits before a triceps injury in Week 12 ended his regular season. Graham made a comeback just in time to add another Super Bowl ring.

Fangio said he "teased" Graham early on to not retire, though he claims all along he was using it to motivate him. And it appeared to have worked.

"All the way from the start, I was teasing him not to retire all the way back to last February or March," Fangio said. "So yeah, I mean I’ve run into him, we’ve talked when he’s come by. I always tease him about it to try and light the fire."