Scottemojo":hhjbu8l3 said:
It's not a hate/love the trade issue for me. It's about my list of concerns. Which grew. O-line instability with potentially two very inexperienced players at LG and C is a concern. Our OC not being able to maximize his weapons is a concern. I can't project what will happen nearly so well as I can see what has already happened. The facts say that Percy got twice as many yards per catch in New York as here. Miller caught less than half as many passes in Seattle as Oakland. Rice caught way less in Seattle, and Tate caught 99 balls after leaving our offense. History suggests thinking Graham will do anything close to what he did in a pass happy offense in NO is a pipe dream. Which dramatically affects his value. Pass catchers in Seattle simply do not have the value here they have elsewhere. Unless they make a big change to the offense, which when tried last year was an abysmal failure.
Right, I'm not trying to make this black and white. Just sayin'
I don't think Unger had much time left in Seattle. I also think one of his backups, Lewis, is promising. And the other (FA) backup, LMJ, is passable for Cable. There's the draft, too, where top centers frequently are drafted in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.
I said a few minutes ago that this trade is basically the equivalent of the #40 overall plus Max Unger for Graham. Max Unger himself was drafted after Seattle dealt away their #37 for a future first that became Earl Thomas. Their next pick wasn't until #68 overall. Sound familiar? TR then dealt that #68 and their #105 picks to move up and get Unger in the mid-2nd. (The 2nd round of that draft was a rare moment of TR glory). The situation Unger was drafted in is very similar to the situation Seattle has put themselves in after this Graham trade. Seattle has plenty of draft ammo to move up and get a young guy they might have targeted to replace Unger anyway. Sure, it's rare for Seattle to move up, but they've never had even close to this many picks at the start before.
Whether it is a draft pick or Lewis or LMJ, experience comes with playing time for those guys. It needed to happen eventually, unless you think Unger was viable long term, which I personally doubt. I think this FO doubted it to, hence the trade.
I don't think this was a case of the Saints wretching Unger from a desperate Hawks org, but a case of Seattle selling high on a player they had planned to phase out anyway. Seattle could have kept Carp pretty easily, and they could have traded an extra pick instead of Unger. But they didn't, and not because they are idiots, but because they are thinking about life in 2016 and 2017 as well as 2015. I suspect that Seattle had been shopping Unger before this trade, or at the very minimum had discussed the idea internally.
And it's just my opinion, which is of extremely limited value, but I personally think Lewis and Bailey are already at a solid starter level.
Wilson is going to take a few extra insta-sacks without Unger's line calls. But as long as that does not result in major injury for Wilson, and past history suggests it is very unlikely, it's only going to be a minor detriment. Seattle won it all with abysmal pass protection for most of the season in 2013, and I don't expect 2015 to be nearly that bad (barring injury).
Regarding Graham, he's probably not going to break 1000 yards next season. But I think he's going to fix a lot of problems on 3rd down and in the red zone. And he's going to dumb down the offense enough for Bevell to look smart. That alone makes him worth the price.
