These five Seahawks are primed for great seasons

Jimmy Graham takes the number three spot

This was the easiest choice of all. Graham was injured coming into camp last season, and still had a decent year. Coming in healthy, you can expect Graham to put up numbers that – okay, got ahead of myself there. No, he won’t put up numbers like he did with the Saints, because Russell Wilson isn’t going to throw the ball 600 times.

That’s no exaggeration, of course. Drew Brees has thrown over 600 passes nine times in the last ten seasons. Jimmy Graham was targeted – are you ready, 12s? – 551 times in his last four seasons with the Saints. Graham had 355 receptions for 46 touchdowns. That’s a catch rate of 64 percent. With the Seahawks last season, Graham was targeted 95 times for 65 catches and six touchdowns. That’s a catch rate of 68.4 percent.

Diving a bit deeper into those numbers, Drew Brees targeted Graham on 20.9 percent of his throws from 2011 through 2014. Wilson targeted Graham on 17.4 percent of his attempts last year. Just a small uptick in targets, especially in the red zone, could make all the difference. Graham only had six catches in the red zone last season, and Coach Carroll has vowed that will change.

"“He’s so much more of a complete player than maybe we thought he would even become, really. So he surprised us. He and Russell are really tuned in. They spend a lot of time together. They communicate beautifully. I think it will hopefully show up as we get closer to the end zone — not quite as productive as we thought we could be. But that’s a big area of focus for us now.”"

Graham led all tight ends in one very big category last season at 14.2 yards per catch. Even with Wilson dialing back on the number of pass attempts, Graham can still have a major impact on the Seahawks push to the title game.