5 biggest trade mistakes for the Seattle Seahawks in franchise history

No. 2 - Seahawks trade for Jimmy Graham, give up Max Unger (2015)

First off, Jimmy Graham wasn't a bad guy. He was, though, a terrible fit in the Seahawks offense and that wasn't his fault. Also, Seattle is still trying to find a replacement as worthy of a player as Unger was. So let's start there. I could have just switched the title of this slide to "No. 2 - Seahawks trade Max Unger" and the ranking here would still be valid. Getting rid of Unger and adding Graham changed the successful identity of the Seattle offense and it hasn't been as efficient since.

Unger was a beast of a blocker, especially as a run blocker. He opened holes for Marshawn Lynch to run through and then once Lynch was through, anything could happen. Without Unger, Seattle tried out different centers over a number of years - Justin Britt, Joey Hunt, Ethan Pocic, Austin Blythe - and all were somewhat successful at some point in their careers, but hardly ever while they were Seahawks. Unger played through 2018 and made the Pro Bowl in his last year. Sadly, that was with the Saints and not the Seahawks.

The Saints, though, might feel the same way about losing Graham. Between 2011 and 2014, Graham had at least 125 targets a season with New Orleans. He was a perfect fit for the Saints offense and he was a good player. But between 2015 and 2017 with Seattle, Graham never had more than 96 targets. Again, he wasn't bad. He made the Pro Bowl twice in his three years with Seattle (though his 2017 nod wasn't really deserved), but Seattle was trying to force a square peg into the round hole of the offense.

Worse still, Seattle didn't just trade Unger, they also traded their 2015 first-round pick. Sure, it was later in the first round and the Seahawks were in a stage of kind of blowing their first pick, but maybe they would have gotten 2015 right. Either way, the team would have been much better off with Unger for four more years than they were adding Graham.