Jimmy Graham had a questionable season as a tight end for his first year in Seattle. Fans, coaches, and his new teammates all expected to see an explosive spectacle from the new tight end, but he barely out shined Luke Willson, who he replaced in the starting lineup.
The six foot seven, 265 pound tight end was expected to out match defenders with his size and speed (4.6 forty yard dash). However, number 88 had only 2 touchdowns in his eleven games, a huge disappointment; he was expected to be a substantial red zone threat.
Some argue that Graham didn’t have explosive numbers because he had to learn a new system. Back in New Orleans, Graham was used to a lot of timing passes from Drew Brees; he would turn and then the ball would be there. With Russell Wilson, he had to get used to a scrambling quarterback, pushing him to make himself open beyond what the play was called for.
I think many Seahawk fans expected Jimmy Graham to be the next big Super Bowl caliber tight end, destined to lift the team to another Super Bowl win.
Some of the best teams to win the Super Bowl had superstar tight ends. Dallas had Jay Novacek, Denver had Shannon Sharpe, and New England has Rob Gronkowski.
Graham should only improve as he continues to play with the Seahawks. When he finally started to shine, he had the season ending patellar tendon injury, but he’ll be back. Number 88 had 48 receptions for 605 yards and 2 touchdowns. Really, he didn’t do that bad. He was most likely on his way to a 1,000 yard season, and if he would have scored more touchdowns, Seahawk fans would have been more satisfied with the new recruit.
So Seahawk fans will have to wait and see if the average $8.9 million yearly salary ($40 million on his total contract) will be worth it. But I think Graham will start rolling after a few games into next season. At 29, he’s a seasoned veteran and with his size and speed, it makes him one of the quickest and biggest tight ends playing today. Graham should get back to being a red zone threat, and hopefully get back to his career average of over 9 touchdowns a season.
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