PHILADELPHIA — Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham, the hero of Super Bowl LII, is looking to make a comeback just in time for the championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Eagles opened the practice window for the veteran defensive end Thursday. Graham tore his triceps in late November against the Los Angeles Rams and announced in the locker room afterward that he would miss the remainder of the season.

Given that he was planning on 2024 being his final season in the pros, there was a real chance the Rams game would be his last. But he’s been rehabbing behind the scenes, and optimism has grown in recent days that he might be able to suit up against Kansas City in New Orleans.

“I’ve been working, man. We’re going to see,” Graham said after Sunday’s 55-23 NFC Championship Game win over the Washington Commanders. “Them boys scored 55 today [the same as his jersey number]. That’s what’s up. That might be telling me something.”

Graham, 36, is the author of the most consequential play in franchise history, a strip sack of Tom Brady in the closing moments of Super Bowl LII that helped deliver the first and only Lombardi Trophy to the city of Philadelphia.

Graham has played the most regular-season games (206) in team history and has the third-most sacks (76.5).

His 15th NFL season was much more than a farewell tour. He was a key part of Vic Fangio’s edge rush rotation, posting 3.5 sacks, seven quarterback hits and six tackles for loss before getting injured.

The Super Bowl trophy is named after Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach who led his team to wins in the first two Super Bowls.

However, Bill Belichick said coaches can’t win games without the players and suggested the Lombardi Trophy be renamed after Tom Brady, who won an NFL-record seven Super Bowl rings in his career — six with Belichick as his head coach.

Belichick, the former New England Patriots head coach who is now the coach at the University of North Carolina, made his comments on the “Let’s Go!” podcast this week in a conversation with co-host Jim Gray.

“Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy. He won seven of them.”

Bill Belichick, on the Super Bowl trophy

“Players win games. You can’t win games without good players. I don’t care who the coach is, it’s impossible. You can’t win without good players. You know, I found that out when I had [Lawrence] Taylor and [Carl] Banks and Harry Carson, Pepper Johnson, Jim Burt, Everson Walls, all those guys at the Giants,” said Belichick, who has won eight Super Bowl rings, including two as an assistant with the Giants. “And same thing when we got good at Cleveland and then at New England. I mean, it’s [Tom] Brady, it’s [Willie] McGinest, it’s [Mike] Vrabel, it’s [Tedy] Bruschi, it’s Corey Dillon, it’s Randy Moss, Troy Brown, Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison. Those are guys that won the games, man. I didn’t make any tackles. I didn’t make any kicks. That was [Adam] Vinatieri that made that kick in 4 inches of snow.

“You got to have good players and as a coach, you want to give your players a chance to win. You want to put them in a position where if they go out there and play well, they’ll have a chance to win. That’s what Coach [Bill] Parcells taught me, is there’s always a way to win. You just got to figure out what it is, and you have to give the players a chance.”

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OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Offensive coordinator Todd Monken is finalizing a contract extension to remain with the Baltimore Ravens, sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Monday.

The new deal comes after Monken led the Ravens to their first ever No. 1 ranking in offense and helped quarterback Lamar Jackson to his best statistical season.

At the Ravens’ end-of-season news conference last week, coach John Harbaugh praised Monken for his work in his first two seasons in Baltimore.

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The Washington Commanders versus the Philadelphia Eagles: Two NFC East teams battling to go to the Super Bowl. It’s an outcome few could have predicted just a few months ago.

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