Jimmy Graham ready week 1? What’s the real story?

NFL Network is now saying that Jimmy Graham will be ready for Week 1. That remains unlikely, so what’s the real story?

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport is reporting that the Seattle Seahawks and Jimmy Graham believe that he will be ready to play by Week 1. That is extremely difficult to believe.

The timing of this report is more than just a little bit curious, as is the source of this story. Keep in mind that ALL reports this time of year are leaked to the media with a motive.

So ask yourself, what’s the motive here? It isn’t to generate interest by other teams for a possible trade. No one will take on his $9 salary salary coming off that injury.

This isn’t an ACL injury we’re talking about; it is a torn patellar tendon. 12-18 months isn’t an unreasonable timeframe. Just look at Victor Cruz as an example.

That leaves two options. It is possible (possible, but unlikely) it was leaked by Graham (or, more precisely, his agent), as a leverage play if Seattle asked Graham to restructure. This is possible, but unlikely.

Since this report came from NFLN, and not an independent news agency, the leak likely came from the team. It also likely wasn’t a coincidence that Rapoport had a Russell Okung report a few minutes earlier.

So why would the team leak this report on Graham? What’s the motive?

It is fairly clear that this is a leverage play. The Seahawks want it known, publicly, that they aren’t desperate at TE or WR. Teams/agents won’t be able to leverage the Graham injury into higher compensation from the Seahawks.

That leaves us with an entirely different question though: Who is it that the Seahawks are working on being in? Marcellus Bennett perhaps? Jared Cook? Richard Matthews?

At this point we can only speculate.