Brandon Graham led NFL in drawing flags

Since he took over as a starter last season, Pro Football Focus has continued to give us good news on the play and potential future of Eagles 2010 first round pick Brandon Graham. By the end of the year, he'd risen to the top of their pass rushing productivity list and he was one of only 2 Eagles to make their top 100 players of 2012 list.

Today we've got more good news. PFF took a look at the defenders who have drawn the most flags and Graham was atop the defensive lineman list. He actually drew more flags rushing the passer than Jason Pierre-Paul despite playing less than half of the total snaps.

This does make some sense. If he was creating more pressure per snap than any other defensive lineman in the league, as PFF's earlier data suggests, it stands to reason that he'd be getting held and drawing more flags than most. Defenders were obviously getting desperate in trying to slow him down.

This all does come in the context of him playing about half the snaps that a regular starter would, so we can't say for sure that he would sustain this level of productivity as a 16 game starter... but it is a strong signal that the talent to be a top pass rusher in this league is there and that if he earns a starting job this season he's likely to be pretty productive.