Bob Ford: School's in for Eagles' Brandon Graham

CINCINNATI - The education of Brandon Graham continued Friday night in Paul Brown Stadium. It is an accelerated course the Eagles rookie is taking, majoring in defensive end with an interesting minor in defensive tackle thrown in for good measure.

He comes to the sideline after good plays and bad plays, and the professors are waiting for him. There are the coaches, of course, but it is Trent Cole and Juqua Parker he looks for.

"When a play happens, and I see something, I let him know what he should have done," Parker said. "He's going to be pretty good."

Coming from Parker, who isn't given to overstatement, that's saying a lot, but it is what all Graham's teammates on the defensive side of the ball are seeing. The Eagles moved up 11 places in the draft to take Graham with the 13th pick. He isn't going to take away a starting job from Cole or Parker right away, but the education is moving quickly.

"It's all experience for him, and he's learning every game," Cole said. "He wants to know what moves you use, and how you set them up. He asks about all that stuff. I tell him what to do and tell him it's all about selling the move and when to use it. He's getting to the quarterback. I see him back there all the time."

Graham didn't play much in the preseason opener against Jacksonville and didn't register a tackle. Against Cincinnati, he led the line on the score sheet, registering three tackles, one sack, two tackles for loss, and one additional hit on the quarterback.

"I think he had a positive day," said Andy Reid, another one who doesn't like to overstate.

Graham is very fast for a man 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds. His natural talent at the moment is for pressuring the passer, and he will have to solidify his run defense to stay on the field in all situations.

On obvious passing downs, he's being used at tackle to give the Eagles some pressure up the middle and not allow opponents to concentrate their protection on the ends. His ability to play both positions kept him on the field a lot against the Bengals.

"I couldn't even keep count. It must have been almost 30 plays," Graham said. "And it was evenly split. I was in for some passes and some runs. That's what you fight for, to be out there as long as you can, because you never know what play is going to be yours. You stay out there and you say, 'That's my play.' You don't want to let someone else get your play."

Graham's most obvious play Friday came in the third quarter when he shot through the middle of the line and sacked Cincinnati backup quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan for a 4-yard loss. It should be the first of many sacks he gets in his professional career. Graham finished as the second-leading sacker in the history of the Michigan program. He accomplished that with surprising speed, but also with a motor that never stops on the field.

"This is a work in progress right now," Graham said. "I feel good with where I am, but know I've got to get a whole lot better. I watch Juqua and Trent. I see how they come off the line. They've got the experience, and I learn from them. Sometimes, I'm late because I look at the man across from me instead of the ball. They tell me what's going on."

At the moment, Graham is working to perfect one of Parker's better moves, one in which the defensive end tries to hit the blocker low and then lift up under him to get him off balance before scooting around the end of the line.

"A chop-dip. I'm trying to get it down," Graham said. "Juqua and I have some of the same attributes, speed off the edge, so I'm trying to see if it works for me."

That's what a rookie training camp, and a rookie season, is all about, finding out if what worked in college still works, and learning all the new chapters in the book. For Graham, that even means learning a new position as well.

"I can get one-on-one at defensive tackle in practice. We have to see if I can do it in games. I've got to make sure I can get the technique down to go inside," Graham said. "It's just trying to see where there's a good fit for me."

So far, he has fit in wherever they have placed him, and on a night in Cincinnati when the Eagles took some steps forward and some steps back, Graham made unqualified progress. He flipped a few pages forward in the textbook and added some credits to his growing education.

"He's developing pretty well," Cole said.

And with that, school was out for another night. But for Brandon Graham, and for the organization that spent highly to draft him, it had been another good night.