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Sielski: Oh, yeah, Eagles need a better pass rush, too

The reigning Super Bowl MVP does this thing that Brandon Graham just loves. Whenever Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller starts to angle his pass-rush route toward a quarterback, he dips his upper body, shrinking the target that an offensive tackle has t

The reigning Super Bowl MVP does this thing that Brandon Graham just

loves.

Whenever Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller starts to angle his pass-rush route toward a quarterback, he dips his upper body, shrinking the target that an offensive tackle has to block him. Simultaneously, if the tackle does position himself well enough to fend off Miller one-on-one, Miller's nimbleness and lowered center of gravity allow him to use a figure- skating-worthy spin move to pirouette past the tackle. What Graham loves most about this sequence is that Miller unfurls it pretty much every time he charges after a quarterback. The tackle knows what's coming, and Miller dares him to stop it.

"I'm going to try to get something that I can consistently do as far as pass rush and just master it and make sure I trust it when I'm in the game and actually do it," Graham said Monday, one day after the Eagles' season had ended. "I see Von, and he does the same thing, and he's got a countermove with it, and it looks like it's just so easy."

There's a reason for that: He's Von Miller, who was the No. 2 pick in the 2011 draft and has never had fewer than 11 sacks in any of his five full seasons with the Broncos. He's as gifted as a pass rusher gets, and it's hardly surprising that Graham marvels over him. Graham just completed his seventh season with the Eagles, and it was his best, and he recorded 51/2 sacks.

That comparison isn't meant as a slight against Graham. He was a very good player this season and might yet become a better one. But it's telling that he was regarded as the Eagles' most effective pass rusher in 2016, especially for a franchise that signed one defensive end, Vinny Curry, to a five-year, $47.25 million contract last offseason and that selected another, Marcus Smith, in the first round of the 2014 draft.

The Eagles' 4-3 alignment this season under new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz - with its wide-nine formation and reliance on having just four down linemen pursue the quarterback - was supposed to unleash Graham, Curry, Connor Barwin, Fletcher Cox, Smith, and others to terrorize offenses. But it succeeded most in showing that the Eagles might yet have a long way to go in building the kind of dominant defensive line that makes Schwartz's system go. For all the hope that Schwartz offered in the wake of Billy Davis' spotty tenure, the Eagles' sack total has declined for three straight seasons: from 49 in 2014 to 37 in 2015 to 34 in 2016.

Now, the caveats: Sacks are not the only measure by which the quality of a defense's pass-rushing ability is or should be judged, and the Eagles' shortcomings at cornerback this season gave opponents an easy way to neutralize the front four. Because the Eagles' outside coverage was often inadequate, quarterbacks could get rid of the ball to their receivers before Graham, Cox, and the rest could arrive. And that coverage was so shaky that Schwartz was reluctant to blitz and put more responsibility on Leodis McKelvin, Nolan Carroll, and rookie Jalen Mills to hold up in man-to-man. Still, the line's excellent play early on was a primary reason that the Eagles got off to a 3-0 start, and its regression was a primary reason that the Eagles finished 7-9.

"We went on that drought, and we were rushing a little too hard instead of having it happen naturally," Graham said. "For us, I think we kind of tensed up. We understand that happens, and we understand we kind of got into, 'Oh, we didn't get a sack this past weekend. People talk about that.' Once we kind of settled down and weren't worried about that, we started to play a lot looser."

A better secondary, of course, would in turn and in theory lead to a better pass rush. But beyond a bit of good fortune - a late-round draft pick developing, a low-cost free agent emerging - it's difficult to envision the Eagles' making a major improvement on the defensive line.

It's not that they haven't tried to address the position: They took Graham in the first round in 2010, Curry in the second in 2012, Smith two years later. It's that they've missed on those picks - with the exception of Graham's solid play in recent seasons. Curry had nine sacks in 2014 as a third-down specialist, which was enough evidence for player-personnel chief Howie Roseman to make him the 10th-highest-paid defensive end in the league last year. On the field for 42.6 percent of the Eagles' defensive snaps this season, he had 21/2 sacks. Smith played half as many snaps but had just as many sacks: 21/2. It was his career high.

"I think my fourth year will be the breakout year for me," Smith said, which is just about the prettiest thing anyone could think about the 2017 Eagles.

Remember, too: There's a trickle-down cost to such failed draft picks and questionable contracts. In a salary-cap world, every dollar a team spends on a defensive end who might or might not become an every-down player, a backup quarterback who is best buds with the head coach, a right tackle with two performance-enhancing-drug suspensions, or a new pair of starting cornerbacks is a dollar that it cannot spend to address another need.

Put it this way: Brandon Graham had better master that new move of his, and fast.

msielski@phillynews.com

@MikeSielski