Making sense of the Seahawks fantasy football options

JIMMY GRAHAM:

Graham was likely an overdraft for many fantasy players last year, particularly Seahawk fans. In New Orleans he was an elite fantasy performer. In Seattle, the Hawks tried making him a “traditional” TE with disastrous results. And just when it appeared he was fitting better into the offense, he hurt his knee and missed the remainder of the season. Take his 2015 numbers and extrapolate it out to 16 games and Graham would have given you 70 catches for 880 yards, not bad for a TE but certainly not worthy of a first round selection. But he only scored 2 TD’s in his 11 games, and THAT is the red flag.

Or is it?

Things have changed with Graham. In the off season the Seahawks drafted Nick Vannett in the 3rd round and signed Brandon Williams as a free agent. Both are outstanding blocking tight ends. And Graham appears fully recovered from his knee injury. In fact, he’s down to 260, which is closer to the weight he played at in New Orleans before he tried bulking up to take on more of the blocking responsibilities Seattle was asking of him last year.

Blocking Schlocking. 

In practice yesterday, Graham not only looked healthy and fast, but he spent most his time working from the slot and split out wide.

If the Hawks are committed to using Graham more as he was deployed by the Saints, a return to the 10 TD level can be expected.

Because he’s coming off a down year, you may be able to wait a bit on Graham. ESPN has him ranked as their 15th best TE and 167th overall, behind 10 kickers and 10 defenses. He would be an outstanding sleeper pick after the 8th round, but if your league has other Seahawk fans in it you may have to bump that up.

And if he’s buried on your roster from last year, he would be a sneaky-good sleeper pick.

Next: Replacing Marshawn Lynch?