Graham Back at Practice for Eagles

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - A bye week has its privileges and one of them is highlighted by the Eagles' injury report on Tuesday.

Both defensive end Brandon Graham (ankle) and left tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai (knee) returned in a padded session inside the NovaCare Complex's practice bubble after missing practices during the bye with their respective injuries.

Graham suffered his ankle injury during the Week 16 win over Oakland on Christmas night and sat out the meaningless regular-season finale against Dallas. Vaitai, meanwhile, was able to play against the Cowboys but has been dealing with the balky knee for a few weeks.

The Eagles' defensive line figures to be very important against Atlanta's high-powered offense and has been banged up a bit down the stretch with Graham, as well as Tim Jernigan (ankle) and Derek Barnett (groin) nursing injuries. All three of those players missed the Week 17 game and figure to be healthy for the Falcons.

A surprise injury did pop up, however, as middle linebacker Dannell Ellerbe missed practice with a hamstring injury.

Ellerbe was able to stretch without a helmet and in shorts with a black sleeve on his right leg before practice began, however, and claimed he would be fine for Wednesday.

The only other player listed on the injury report was Jay Ajayi, who was held out one day last week to manage his chronic knee pain. The running back was a full go on Tuesday.

NOVACARE NOTES:

-Eagles coach Doug Pederson has some of the team's players that have won a Super Bowl talk to the rest of the team in an effort to get across the importance of taking advantage of an opportunity when you have one.

-In that same vein, the longest-tenured Eagle, Brent Celek, was also asked to talk about what it means to be in the NFL playoffs.