The unprecedented impact of Fletcher Cox, Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham

In the Eagles’ first 91 seasons, they never had one player like this.

A guy who played at least 170 games in an Eagles uniform, made at least one Pro Bowl and never played for another team.

Not one.

Almost every great player who started here finished somewhere else. Brian Dawkins was a Bronco. Harold Carmichael was a Cowboy. Tommy McDonald was a Cowboy and a Ram. Eric Allen was a Raider and a Saint. Randall, Donovan, DeSean, LeSean, Trott.

From the start of free agency in 1992 through 2022, the Eagles drafted 34 Pro Bowl players. Not one of them played his entire career here.

And why is all this important?

Because to fully understand the importance and impact and uniqueness of Fletcher Cox, Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham, you have to understand how rare it is in the free agency era for just one elite player to spend his entire career with one team.

For three to do it concurrently? And most likely four, with Lane Johnson virtually certain to never play anywhere else? 

It’s unprecedented.

Since the inception of free agency in 1992, Cox, Kelce and Graham are the only NFL trio that each made a Pro Bowl, had overlapping careers for at least 12 years and never played a snap for another team.

Even before the inception of free agency in 1992, this was a rarity. There have only been eight groups of three Pro Bowl players in NFL history that spent this much time together, most recently Karl Mecklenburg, Dennis Smith and John Elway, whose Broncos careers overlapped from 1983 through 1994. Before that, Steve Nelson, John Hannah and Julius Adams of the Patriots overlapped from 1974 through 1985.

This is special stuff and it only happens with an owner and general manager who are committed to paying top dollar for great players and keeping an elite nucleus together. In a salary cap world, that’s almost impossible to do.

Consider this: Until Kelce, Cox and Graham, not one player in franchise history made a Pro Bowl, played 170 games in an Eagles uniform and spent his entire career here.

Then Cox played 188, Kelce 193 and B.G. 206.

Only Chuck Bednarik and Bobby Walston in the 1950s and Jerry Sisemore in the 1970s and 1980s even played 150.

From 2010 through 2024, there were only eight position players league-wide who played in 185 games for the same team and made a Pro Bowl. Five were Lavonte David, Cameron Hayward, Devin McCourty, Cameron Jordan and Harrison Smith.

The three others were Cox, Kelce and B.G.

This rare brand of continuity equals success. For over a decade, you went into the season knowing Kelce was going to be out there dominating people at center, Cox was going to be steamrolling offensive linemen and B.G. was going to be chasing down quarterbacks and stuffing running backs while trash talking at an all-pro level.

No coincidence that during the 12 years that trio was together the Eagles reached the playoffs seven times, won their first Super Bowl and reached another. All three played at a superb level late in their careers and all three walked away while they were still very productive players.

Cox had one of his best seasons in 2022 at 32 years old with 7.0 sacks, the 3^rd-most of his career, plus another in the postseason. B.G. had one of his most effective seasons in 2024 at 36 years old in his one year under Vic Fangio. And Kelce made 1^st-team all-pro in each of his last three seasons, becoming only the third player in NFL history to receive that honor three times after turning 34.

This is the richest period in Eagles history, and Cox, Kelce and Graham have been at the heart of it. Kelce and Cox retired before the second championship, but the impact both had on their teammates – specifically Kelce with Cam Jurgens and Cox with Jalen Carter - was a big part of the team's success. Even though they weren't active players, they were still a part of the team.

Cox, Kelce and Graham were each peerless leaders, powerful locker room voices, forces in the community and terrors on the field. Each helped write the history of a franchise that’s been around for 92 years.

Each has been a champion and a warrior. And each has been an Eagle and never anything else.

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