Sean McDermott Talks About Why Brandon Graham Was Playing Inside So Much

Last Sunday, a lot of us were surprised by the looks we saw from the Eagles defensive line. We expected to see Brandon Graham start at LDE with Juqua Parker backing him up. If any defensive end was going to play inside the likely guy seemed to be Darryl Tapp.

As it turned out Brandon Graham spent a to of snaps playing DT, newly acquired Antwan Barnes played almost 30 snaps at LDE, Juqua Parker got two sacks, and Darryl Tapp was inactive. For the most part though, it worked out well. The Eagles pressured Rodgers, sacked him three times, and forced a few interceptions. The second pick, according to Sean McDermott, was thanks to the pressure brought by Brandon Graham from the inside.

"Week-to-week. Week-to-week, honestly, and he's going to be moved all around. I wish we had eleven of him quite honestly, but he can't play more than one position at a time, unfortunately here. But he was productive. He was productive outside, he was productive inside, and then particularly on [S] Nate's [Allen] interception he got great push and the quarterback sailed the ball because he couldn't step up [in the pocket] and that was due to Brandon's presence inside."

McDermott stressed the need for a push inside if you're going to have speed guys like Trent Cole & Antwan Barnes on the outside. It seemed to me like it might not have been the plan to have the rotation shake out the way it did, but when Barnes continued to get pressure on the outside and Graham was getting it inside, McDermott just decided to stick with it.