Brandon Graham was supposed to walk away on the highest possible note: a Super Bowl win with the Philadelphia Eagles. That, at least, was the expectation. But plans changed. The 37-year-old ended up returning midway through the season, giving the Eagles one more boost up front. Fast forward to now, and that comeback has come to an end after Philadelphia was eliminated by the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card round.

Naturally, the question pops up again: was that Graham’s final chapter in the NFL? According to Mike Garafolo, not so fast.

“Spoke to Brandon Graham briefly last night. He’ll take time to think but don’t assume that’s it for his career. His body responded well and he felt he was just getting into a groove down the stretch. He turns 38 in April but had the look and sound of a guy that has football left,” the analyst shared on Monday.

Graham initially announced his retirement in March last year after the Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. At the time, it felt like a perfect ending. Graham is the longest-tenured Eagle in franchise history and one of the four players to win Super Bowls with both the Eagles’ championship teams. A storybook exit, by every measure.

Then things shifted. When Za’Darius Smith unexpectedly announced his retirement midseason, the door cracked open. Not long after, reports surfaced that Graham was weighing a return. And eventually, he did just that.

“Two and a half months ago, I made the decision to come out of retirement. I had gone out on top, celebrating my second Super Bowl on Broad Street. I lived the fairytale ending. But, when I had the chance to come back, I thought to myself, why pass on an opportunity at history?” Graham addressed the Eagles fans before the playoffs.

Graham returned in Week 10, and in the nine games that followed, he recorded three sacks and eight total tackles. Even while playing just 19% of the defensive snaps, he showed there was still something left in the tank. The production wasn’t eye-popping, but it was meaningful given the role.

Still, after the Niners knocked Philadelphia out in the Wild Card round, questions about the 37-year-old’s future were unavoidable. Graham came back on a one-year deal, and the playoff exit naturally reopened the retirement conversation. But despite how the season ended, Graham has made one thing clear: He’s not ready to walk away just yet.

The Eagles failed to defend their title

It marked the seventh straight game the Eagles failed to score 20 points against a team with a winning record. This time, though, the consequences were final. The season ended with the same offensive struggles that never truly got fixed. After the loss, Saquon Barkley didn’t sugarcoat what went wrong.

“You tell me a time. We’ve played, what, 18 games this year? You tell me a time on offense that we put together two halves. And I bet you it’s under five,” Barkley said. “And we expected that we were going to make it work (Sunday).

“That’s just the confidence you should have, that we’re gonna go out there and make it work, but we just didn’t, we just didn’t do it, and it caught up to us. It caught up to us in the playoffs, and in this, in the playoffs in the NFL, it’s not the NBA, you know, you don’t get seven games, best-of-seven. It’s whoever’s the best that day, and they were the better team.”

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Barkley, to his credit, was one of the few who showed up when it mattered most on offense. He finished with 106 rushing yards, leading an Eagles ground attack that totaled 140 yards. Beyond that, though, the offense stalled. Philadelphia opened strong, scoring 13 points and piling up 188 yards in the first half. But whatever rhythm they found didn’t survive the break.

The second half unraveled quickly. The Eagles managed just six more points and 119 yards, with no consistent passing game, repeated three-and-outs, and little help from the play-calling. The final score told the story: a 23–19 loss to the Niners. The 49ers moved on. Philadelphia didn’t. And in the process, they failed to defend their title. What 2026 holds now remains an open question.