Seahawks won’t re-sign Jimmy Graham. Also, water is wet.
For some reason it’s suddenly breaking news that Jimmy Graham won’t be back for 2018. In other shocking news, the Seahawks play in Seattle.
I’m not out to knock any sites or sources in particular. God knows I’ve written plenty of cringe-worthy articles myself. I’d link to my gaffes here, but I’m trying to keep this under 500 words. But Jimmy Graham going to another team isn’t news. Not new news, anyway.
I’m not linking to any of these stories. For one thing, the story is simple: Jimmy Graham won’t be in Seattle in 2018. For another, if you’re a Seahawks fan you’ve already seen at least half a dozen of these headlines. A lot of “Seahawks and star TE Graham expected to part ways”, and “Jimmy Graham expected to become free agent” stuff.
Ummm…exactly how is this news? We wrote this story in January, and revisited it in February. And trust me, if we figured out Jimmy Graham was gone, everybody knew it.
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Let me recap the situation. The Seahawks currently have practically no cap space. After accounting for rookie contracts they’ll pick up in the draft, they’ll have about $8 million left in cap space. Yes, they’ll make some moves to create more space and will likely restructure some contracts. Even then, they’ll still be about $20 million below the league average. When you’re trying to sign the few free agents you can afford, it isn’t good to have 26 other teams carrying a fatter wallet than yours.
Seahawks have about a dozen more pressing needs than Jimmy Graham
The Seahawks have a lot of needs to fill this off-season. Duane Brown was a nice start to rebuild the offensive line, but there’s still work to be done there. We could use another running back, and there are more than a few showing up on the free agent market. If Seattle kept Jimmy Graham, they wouldn’t need to sign a starting tight end. But as we pointed out in those stories over the past two months, Graham’s production didn’t justify his $10 million contract.
It’s true that he won’t even sniff $10 million this time around. He did score 10 touchdowns, and that can’t be overlooked. It’s also true had his worst season ever by every other measure. 9.1 yards was his lowest average per catch, and he didn’t even snag 60 percent of his targets. Pro Football Focus rated him the 33rd best tight end, grading out at 54.1.
Let me just say, it isn’t good when there are 18 backup tight ends that rank higher than you. That counts only players with at least 100 snaps, so the Giants Ryan O’Malley doesn’t get credit for beating out Graham with his sparkling rate of 66.0 on a whopping seven snaps. That was his one game, and he had zero receptions. How he ranked ahead of Graham in receiving, well, take it up with Pro Football Focus.
I come not to bury Jimmy Graham – well, not totally
All that being said, if Seattle was riding high with about $30 million in cap space, I think he’d be back. For a $10 million player, he had a weak year, despite the red zone heroics. For a $7 million player, it was pretty good. And I expect he’ll bounce back in 2018, whether he’s back in New Orleans, or moves on to another of the rumored destinations.
The point is, Jimmy Graham didn’t have the kind of year that makes you want to spend almost your entire free agent budget to bring him back. The Seahawks probably knew he wasn’t coming back before the 2017 season started. I’m pretty sure almost every 12 knew he wasn’t coming back when the last whistle blew at CenturyLink Field on New Year’s Eve. And now, the national media suddenly knows.
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I suppose I should look on the bright side. At the least the big off-season story for the Seahawks isn’t about how much the defense hates Russell Wilson, right?