Welcome to the Star of the weekend. I'm Chris McPherson and this is inside Training Camp presented by Kaspanity. Nelson Agilore has been one of the stars of camps to this point. The third year player has struggled in his first couple of seasons in the league, but maybe he'll finally break through. Another former first round pick who took some time to gain steam is defensive end Brandon Graham.
In twenty sixteen, his seventh season, he started all sixteen games for the first time in his career, and in fact, he led the entire NFL with a combined seventy eight sacks. Quarterback hurries and downs or Alex Smith goes one on one with the second team All Pro. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Novacare Complex Eagles training camp in full swing. I am Alex Smith and the man to my left Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham. Brandon, the life tackling starts
going on this week. How good to feel for you from your position to start hitting some guys here in training camp. Man, it feels good, you know, kind of not gonna the rust off, you know what. I haven't hit over a year, so it's you know, it feels good to get back to football. How emotional does it get out there? I mean, you're competitive guys out there. You can offense versus defense. How competitive is it out there?
It's very competitive because right now everything is at our at our grass, and all we gotta do is go out there and put it on tape and uh and work hard. And I think when it's time to compete, you know, that's really when it's time for us to get better. And and I really love the way, you know, we've been competing because you can see a lot of people, you know, are really you know, hungry, you know for the season to start because they know it's gonna take all of us. And I think we got some good
leaders on this team. What's the mindset of the defense this year? After last year started out pretty hot, ended up with a seven and nine record, what's the mindset on the defense this year? The mindset is everybody gets to the ball. Nobody loafs. That means we have to turn and run to the ball. Everybody. We don't want to see nobody not scratching and clawn to get to
the ball. And I think that's where you know, we could make some real good plays when you got a hold, When you got eleven guys going to one player with the ball, you can always cause and rereg have it. And I think we're doing a good job of it so far. You're two for you and a lot of the other guys. In Jim Schwartz's defense, what is that year of experience do for you guys heading into this year.
It helps us work on a lot of things we need to work on that we kind of miss last year that we couldn't get into because we were spending too much time on learning the technique, learning things that you know, if we was in the system already, we would know and we would kind of you know, progress, And I think we've got it now. We know exactly what's the technique, We know what we have to work
on now. Always time to go out there and play together and trust one another, because that's really what it is. As a you have to trust that your guy that's going to do his job the best he can and you have to you have to do yours. You gotta be accountable, and I think that's the next step for us, is to make sure that we all are accountable for our one job that we have to do each play, Brandon, there are some high expectations, especially for the front seven.
This year. You guys brought in a lot of pieces. When you talk about guys like Chris Long, Derek Barnette, Tim Journegan, what do those guys bring to this defense? They bring depth and they bring you know, energy, you know, I think, uh, you know, in those moments when we need to play, we need the freshest guys out there and U to have a good rotation is what you want.
And when you have good guys like that, you know, the sacks goes up and the winds come and I think, you know, if we keep the mindset of going out there and working hard each and every day, which we have, you know, good things can only happen from that. From that, talking about the young guy Derek Barnette, you've been in his shoes as a first round pick coming in here as a defensive end. What kind of tips can you give him about becoming a pro? H Just make sure
that you listen to whatever the coaches teaching you. You know, don't say too much, go out there and give it one hundred percent effort because that's what you can control and get to the ball, you know, and make plays. That's really the bottom line. Get to the ball, make plays, and go one hundred miles flour even if you're run. When this defense takes the field this year, what are the fans? What should they expect? What are they going
to see from you guys as a unit? Are they gonna see a bunch of guys flying around having fun and then we're gonna sing that fight song? Got the end of it every game? My last question for you here Ohio State versus Michigan this year, who has the edge? Man? You know? Who got it? Michigan? Go blue baby? All right, Brandon Graham, thank you very much and thank you all for joining us right here on Philadelphiagles dot Com. Great interview there. Alex Brandon is one of the most fun
personalities inside the locker room. Now. Carson Wentz is not the only former number two overall pick on the roster. Chris Long was selected by the Saint Louis Rams with the number two overall pick back in two thousand and eight. In twenty and sixteen, he won a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, and he signed with the Eagles this offseason. Who had you have that defensive end and bring a veteran presence inside the locker room. Long, the tenth year player, is a subject of the latest in
Focus All thank you very much. Can I just say, first, um, thank you to Jeffrey, Allie and Doug forgive me this opportunity and Chris Long defensive end scheme for me was the number one factor in me coming to Philly. Obviously there's a lot of positives about the city, the atmosphere, the team being on the rise and all that stuff. But there was a good opportunity to play the kind of football I played for a lot of years in
the Saint Louis and that was exciting. You know. I think the group has the potential to be a dominant group played on a lot of good D lines before. I can tell that this group has a chance to be extremely disruptive, dominant group. It'd be great today. Yeah, I'm gonna be great today. Get us out of here, hey, work all three part You know. I think Greg Williams and Jim Schwartz have a lot of similarities. I think, personality wise being pardons, but also players, coaches and schematically
very bright minds in football. Obviously well known for their you know, play calling and exotic type blitz is and aggressive attitude, so they do that well, but they also can joke around and have fun with players. Love them out of now we go. That's a better job coming out of your boat group. I think you're always looking to improve your game. I think for me, I want to improve the things that are going to help me
help this team within this scheme. So for me, it's getting back to getting off on the ball key and the snack count, being quick aggressive, whereas last year I kind of had a year off from that, playing a little bit more of a read scheme. So it's resetting my brain to Taylor what we do here, and once you get back at it, it's like riding a bicycle. So it's a lot of fun. I'm hoping I can bring a lot of intensity, you know, passion. You know. I'm excited about the future and what I can do
to help the team. We'll see what that role is as training camp progresses, but you know, for me, I just want to help the team. Don't forget that. This Sunday is the final open practice at Lincoln Financial Field. Well of details as well as exclusive access to the coaching staff right after this break. He's found the end zone over seventeen times today. He's a professional football watcher because he has NFL Red Zone from NFL Network on xcenity to come up for a fad only with xcenity.
Don't wait click today. So you love your game, so does he? You say, ain't nobody gonna work harder? He said the same thing. You get an hour of training in before the sun even comes up. Plenty of early rises out there. You got the gear, They got the gear. You got a secret weapon. This dude doesn't need one. See, this isn't just a game of inches. This is a game of ounces. In the next until you give might just be the one the other guy doesn't. Dator rade, rehydrate,
replenish and refuel. Welcome back now. If you need a little motivation, a little kickstart to get you going. We miked up the coaches during the spring. If this won't get you moving, I don't know if anything will come out of your hips, deliver a violent blow. It comes up. You're right, get out right, that's it? Good right there, madam? What's this gonna that way? I'm not teaching you the whole but I'm teaching the control. Can't sink those hips now,
clamb a. Football's all about the ball. It's all about the ball by the cool Joe I foot by good. You see how you're tragging it. It should just google seen a different Now. You're worried more about releasing than you are about striking extension right. All you're doing now the second phase of that trial. It's like pushing a Volkswagen up a hill. Chill, well done, nice tight here you good, Water up, big man, water up again. Sunday is the final open practice at Lincoln Financial Field. Parking
and admission are free. Gates open at eight thirty and practice kicks off at ten. It is Kid's Day, so there are plenty of family friendly activities as well as a chance to go on the field after practice. If you're not able to join us, don't worry. We will live stream portion of the practice on our social media channels. That'll do it for this edition of Inside Training campres into Bikes Fity. I'm Chris McPherson. Thank you for joining us. We will see you on Sunday. M