March 19, 2025
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Lane Johnson is now the longest-tenured Eagle, and one of the longest-tenured pro athletes in Philadelphia.
Brandon Graham retired on Tuesday, bringing a two-time Super Bowl-winning and overall incredible 15-year Eagles career to an end.
But with that, Philadelphia's longest-tenured pro athlete – across the Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, and Sixers – retired, too.
So what's the new chain of seniority across Philly Sports?
Here's a look at the new list of longest-tenured players following Graham's retirement...
Couturier came in as an 18-year-old rookie who made his mark shutting down Evgeni Malkin in that legendary 2012 playoff series against the Penguins, steadily building a reputation as one of the NHL's best checking centers in the several seasons that followed.
Like the rest of the Flyers, however, he fell on tough times in the past few years, with repeated back issues costing him a majority of the 2021-22 season and then all of the 2022-23 campaign.
He finally made his way back last season, has consistently stayed on the ice since, and was named team captain, but is tasked now with leading the Flyers through a substantial rebuild – in his 30s and on a long-term contract, big money contract that pretty much ensures that he won't be going anywhere.
Arguably the best right tackle in the NFL, Johnson at the end of 2023 said he had a few good years of football left in him, and after the Eagles' second-ever Super Bowl title and then a contract extension signed this week, both he and the team are still fully behind that notion.
Johnson should continue to be one of the focal points of a strong offensive line for the foreseeable future, and now that Graham has retired, he'll carry the torch as the longest-tenured Eagle.
Don't worry I got y'all!@brandongraham55 @fcoxx_91 @JasonKelce pic.twitter.com/7x3yLc502n
— Lane Johnson (@LaneJohnson65) March 18, 2025
Nola debuted on the mound and pitched through some of the Phillies' worst days in the mid-2010s, but he endured all of it and helped to see the club's breakout, finally, into a contender again through.
He's one of the last Philles around from the pre-Bryce Harper days, but he's still just as vital a piece near the top of the team's rotation.
"The Phillies go with Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler," catcher J.T. Realmuto said after the 2023 Wild Card series. "When those guys are nails, we're a heck of a ball club. That's what they've done for us these last two postseasons and that's what they've done for us for years."
(*Note that all Phillies on the list include the 2025 season they're about to head into.)
Embiid has been in Philadelphia for more than a decade now, but in the past few years especially, has seen a ton of turnover on the Sixers rosters around him.
The one constant, though, was that the rosters were always reconstructed on the fly with him in mind.
But that might be a problem now.
Embiid is on a massive contract, but repeated knee issues kept him off the court and then shut him down entirely for the remainder of this season, and pushing into his 30s, it's led to serious concern over whether he can still be the face of the franchise going forward anymore.
A fiery and instinctive quick-skating winger who originally came in as a complementary piece to the old Claude Giroux-led core, Konecny is one of the senior leaders in a rebuilding Flyers locker room now, and signed long-term in the summer in the hopes of seeing the process fully through.
"It was just, to me there was no other option," Konecny said last July. "If I get the opportunity to win a Stanley Cup, which I believe we can do in Philly, that just wouldn't feel any...that wouldn't feel like an accomplishment unless it was the Flyers and the team that believed in me."
Elliott kicked through the field goal that made for the final eight-point lead to get the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win over the Patriots seven years ago, then went a perfect 4-for-4 in last month's thrashing of the dynasty Chiefs for the second.
He's been one of the most consistent kickers in the NFL up until a suddenly rocky year this past season, but did come through perfect when it mattered the most.
The Eagles did make a notable change to the field-goal unit by bringing in Charley Hughlett as the new long snapper though, which took Rick Lovato, who had been there every year with Elliott, off the list.
MORE: Brandon Graham's once-in-a-lifetime Eagles career, by the numbers
Once part of a pipeline of young defensemen that the Flyers were trying to flesh out through the mid-late 2010s – between himself, Robert Hägg, Sam Morin, Phil Myers, and Ivan Provorov – Sanheim is the last one standing of the bunch.
Now, much like Konecny, he's taken on the responsibility of helping to guide a young Flyers locker room through a rebuild, while skating as the team's top defenseman.
Suárez debuted in July 2018, but it took until late into the 2021 season for the left-hander to settle in as a regular starter.
He's been a solid arm in the middle of the Phillies' rotation since, and the club is hoping he can recapture the dominant form he held through the first half of last season, back when he got off to an impressive 10-1 start.
It is worth noting, though, that 2025 will be a contract year for the 29-year-old.
Based on current buzz, and the Eagles' recent stockpiling of tight end depth, there's a chance Goedert might not be on this list for much longer.
But for now, he came in as the successor to Zach Ertz while co-existing with him for the first several years of his career. Then, once the TE1 job was solely his, he stood out as a dangerous blocking and pass-catching threat for opposing defenses so long as he was on the field – and, as Carrington Valentine came to realize, he can throw out a nasty stiff arm.
GOEDERT STIFF ARM TD 💪
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 12, 2025
📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/v2VnSa6kJX
Goedert has one year left on his contract, and there's doubt as to whether he'll play that final year as an Eagle.
But as things currently stand, he's tied for the second-longest active tenure on the team behind Johnson now.
A seventh-round draft pick in April 2018 and a long-term project as an offensive lineman out of Australia, Mailata didn't actually see the field until the 2020 season, but once he did, his development rapidly snowballed into establishing him as one of the best left tackles in the league.
Mailata grew into an irreplaceable part of the Eagles' offensive line, and one who won't be going anywhere anytime soon with a contract that will keep him in Philadelphia through 2028.
Nola is the Phillie who has been around the longest, but they're Bryce Harper's team, and that only seems to become truer the longer he's there.
He's entering Year 7 now, and the fourth since the Phillies broke out into true World Series ambitions with 2022's miracle run.
They're still chasing after a title, but if they're going to get there, they need Harper to keep going as an MVP-caliber bat at the heart of the order and as potentially Gold Glove-level first baseman in the field.
Realmuto arrived just before Harper via a trade from the Marlins in February 2019, and has been his own important part of the Phillies' lineup ever since.
Through postseason heroics, steady production at the plate, a cannon of an arm when he's throwing behind it, and calling pitches for the Phillies' top starters for years, the "Best Catcher in Baseball" label has stayed with Realmuto for a long time.
That said, he is getting older, entering the final year of his contract, and while he's still here, and still a longtime member of the team, the Phillies might be at a potential crossroads for what's next at the catcher position.
MORE: Will, should Phillies extend Kyle Schwarber, Ranger Suárez, J.T. Realmuto?
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
