Max Unger and 1st for Jimmy Graham and 4th round pick

[Hawks46]

I'm not too worried about the amount of Graham's targets.

Wilson threw the ball an average of 28 times a game last season. His career average is around 66%. If having a big, sure handed target like Graham ups him to 70 %, then we're talking 20 completions per game.

Giving Graham about 5 of those doesn't seem out of line. couple that with 10 ypc average, which is what he had last year and was his worst average of his career, we're looking at: 80 catches for 800 yards and 10 TDs. The TDs are an arbitrary number I came up with, but you can see how Graham can have a pretty major impact right away.

We can also see the number of throws go up. Pete has said we're a run first offense, but he's also said he likes a balanced offense. You could see another 5 attempts per game and still be a 50/50 balanced offense. Also, when Lynch retires, Graham's contract really won't be that big of a deal, and we all know it's going to be hard to replace Lynch. I could see us maybe going 55/45 pass to run ratio if we had average to above average backs, but really good receivers.

Graham might actually be part of a long term plan in dealing with the offense once Lynch hangs his cleats up.

 

[Anonymous]

Has there been any word on Unger's physical?

 

[seabowl]

Jimmy is an enigma. There is not one player like him in the league. We were the only team that I know of to shut him down and it's because we had to scheme for it. When you have players that the other team has to scheme for you know you have something special.

The funny thing is when we had Percy it wasn't the other team that had to scheme for him, it was us.

 

[original poster]

Has there been any word on Unger's physical?

Scheduled for Monday.

 

[Ruminator]

Go back and look at Graham's highlights. There's plenty of them where Brees is hitting Graham on a slant in under 2 seconds. Literally, the ball is hiked, Brees gets it, looks and fires that quickly. It's Tom Brady and Peyton Manning quick. That's what Harvin was supposed to bring us, he gets it with instant separation while Graham gets it with size and body positioning. It's why Manning and Brady are so hard to sack when their offense runs right.

It's what we've been missing Russ's entire career here; a guy that you can get the ball to quickly to beat an overload blitz or pass pro breakdown.

Graham does a lot of things for us, all of which were major weaknesses for the Seahawks. Interior OL has been a weakness all last year. PFF grades out Sweezy, Unger and Carpenter all negative for pass protection. Russ is used to it, and we worked around it. Graham adds much more than he detracts, and I think he adds more than we lose with Unger. You could literally argue that Graham can upgrade the pass protection by giving Russ an instant outlet.

I sure am hoping for exactly this. But having an offensive line ranked near the bottom for yet another season continues to vex me all the same.

 

[theincrediblesok]

Here's a thought.....wait until the game actually starts before we start saying the O-line is a liability. With the draft not even here yet I am not concern until I have to be concerned. The new guys could actually surprised us and do very well. Green Bay and Cowboys line showed that after the draft they ended up with a better than average line. Being this is a heavy favoritable OL draft, we are bound to hit on some good ones. I say draft 4 OL and compete hard!

 

[HawkFan72]

Graham is the perfect antidote to Wilson's habit of throwing high too. Whenever he is throwing to Graham, throwing high is probably a good thing because Graham is the only one who can go up and get it.

 

[Ruminator]

Here's a thought.....wait until the game actually starts before we start saying the O-line is a liability. With the draft not even here yet I am not concern until I have to be concerned. The new guys could actually surprised us and do very well. Green Bay and Cowboys line showed that after the draft they ended up with a better than average line. Being this is a heavy favoritable OL draft, we are bound to hit on some good ones. I say draft 4 OL and compete hard!

Righty-o, I take your post to be largely in response to mine, and should have prefaced my statement with "The thought of..." as I'm certainly hopeful for marked OL improvement. So while some have said they expect RW's sack numbers to actually increase this coming season, I trust that the front office considers OL a top priority and has a bona fide plan in place with the goal of reducing QB pressures and sacks.

If we draft 3-4 OL guys, the odds are good that at least one will be a difference-maker.

 

[JustTheTip]

Enlighten us, then.

Wiki reveals all

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Graham

This whole Graham is soft thing is overblown. You don't catch 355 balls and 46 TD's over a four year period if you're easily intimidated and taken off your game.

Plus Graham is so big, he rarely makes everyone miss. The guy takes shots on EVERY play.

Watching the highlights, unless he flat out hurdles a guy, he LOOKS for contact. He doesn't shy away from it, unless we're talking about Kam (and Graham had a sprained shoulder that game). If you're going to use that for context, half of the NFL is soft. There are plenty of business decisions being made when Kam comes running up.

And the other half plays on defense.

 

[brimsalabim]

If you really want to evaluate this trade without bias, just take a look at our competitors' message boards and read what they have to say about the trade. They're positively crapping themselves.

Arizona recognises we tore them up with a no-name tight end and can't imagine how bad it will be with a superstar doing the same.

Here are selected quotes from the 49ers' fans:

Don't buy it, A late 1st and a center for the best TE in the league?

NFL network has confirmed it fuuuuuuuuuuu

Jssus F christ, the LAST thing Jump-Ball-And-Pray-To-God Wilson needs is Jump-Up- And-Catch-Anything Graham, on his team.

OH F ME...O FM ME

Hello there. I am a 49er fan. Where do I stand in line to watch my team get their ass kicked?

Some here may dislike this trade, but our opposition absolutely hates it.

This does make me feel a lot better about the trade, cost or no. But as DavidSeven said, they said that about Percy too. I don't think that's anywhere close to what will happen here, but surprises do happen.

Everyone was spewing migraine and injury when Harvin was signed. They're actuall skeerd with the Graham signing.

Yep and lets hope they are as right about Jimmy as they were about Percy.

 

[brimsalabim]

Has there been any word on Unger's physical?

Scheduled for Monday.

Should we go ahead and get Wiz off the board just in case? We know Percy passed our physical even though he shouldn't have because we wanted to sign him and we know Scofield failed the Giants even though he was good to go because they found a better option. Maybe we should remove the wiz option for the saints?

 

[theincrediblesok]

Here's a thought.....wait until the game actually starts before we start saying the O-line is a liability. With the draft not even here yet I am not concern until I have to be concerned. The new guys could actually surprised us and do very well. Green Bay and Cowboys line showed that after the draft they ended up with a better than average line. Being this is a heavy favoritable OL draft, we are bound to hit on some good ones. I say draft 4 OL and compete hard!

Righty-o, I take your post to be largely in response to mine, and should have prefaced my statement with "The thought of..." as I'm certainly hopeful for marked OL improvement. So while some have said they expect RW's sack numbers to actually increase this coming season, I trust that the front office considers OL a top priority and has a bona fide plan in place with the goal of reducing QB pressures and sacks.

If we draft 3-4 OL guys, the odds are good that at least one will be a difference-maker.

Your post at least have some hope that the front office will try something, others have already act like the Jimmy Graham trade have just made our O-line worse, when in actuality we don't even know that yet. OL is a top priority like you said and I'm sure the FO will take care of it. But for the past two years we have been in the bottom rank for O-line yet we still put alot of explosive plays on the board. If we get the ball out quicker I can see that it would compensate for the O-line. That is where I think Jimmy's threat will play a major role. Remember some of the screen passes we throw to Luke Willson, I see Graham getting some of those.

Sure Wilson might take more sacks or he might not, we don't know yet. I have a feeling he will take less this year, and that's before we draft an O-line. He's just going to have to run a bit more until the line gels, but that's when Wilson is deadly anyways. That's why I'm not too concern about the O-line at the moment.

If you really look at our history with our O-line, when have we not ever have the same line week in and week out. I think we had over 8+ different combination of starting lineup last year. Injury was the major concern for our O-line for the past 3 seasons. I think playing in the NFC West as physical as it is you gotta be strong enough to endure those tough games.

 

[original poster]

Has there been any word on Unger's physical?

Scheduled for Monday.

Should we go ahead and get Wiz off the board just in case? We know Percy passed our physical even though he shouldn't have because we wanted to sign him and we know Scofield failed the Giants even though he was good to go because they found a better option. Maybe we should remove the wiz option for the saints?

It seems JS has already made an offer for Wiz but he's testing what he can get elsewhere. Can't imagine it being wrapped up by Monday, unfortunately.

 

[original poster]

I couldn't stand some of the melodramatics in this thread yet here I am about to be exactly that...

Since Ungers physical was confirmed for Monday yesterday I noticed everyone reporting on it was questioning if he'd actually pass. I hope I'm being ridiculous here but what happens if the Saints realise they've made a ridiculous trade (which I firmly believe they have) and fail him on his physical?

My whole week has been lifted with Jimmy becoming a Hawk and I think it would be gut wrenching to lose him before we've already got him.

Can anyone shed any light on it?

Apologies for being (hopefully) ridiculous and melodramatic with my post, pot kettle black definitely rings true with my post!

 

[theincrediblesok]

Earlier someone mention that if Saints think they made a mistake and fail him on purpose then that FO would not get alot of interest from others in the league. It would be a lost of trust.

 

[kearly]

I think Graham is a bully type. He talks big and he will beat people up, but if he gets punched in the nose, he runs away squealing. It's not hard to see why the Hawks D disrespects a guy like that. A bit of a fake tough guy.

That said, there are only a small number of teams in the NFL that can expose this side of Graham. And the worst of them was just removed as a threat.

You obviously don't know much about Graham and how he grew up. Questioning his toughness is the last thing you should do.

You mean the story about how he got beat up bullies and nobody wanted him as a kid? That's supposed to make him tough? Well, it doesn't usually work that way and it didn't for Graham. Maybe it worked that way for you.

You should probably read more of my posts. Very few here have been more positive about this trade or Graham than me. But is he finnesse? Is he a shit talker that doesn't always back it up? Obviously. Watch football. He is definitely a fake tough guy. Don't believe me, ask our defense what they think. I am only stating the obvious.

But I don't really care all that much about it, he's going to help our offense a ton, and I've said like 80 times now that I LOVE the trade. The lack of want-to and the business decisions he makes are not something I expect to matter much.

I also think that he's the kind of guy opponents hate but teammates love. Kind of like Richard Sherman.

 

[TXHawk]

Not really any different than how they reacted when we picked up Percy, though.

Getting tired of the Harvin comparisons.

Harvin was a mercurial talent who showed flashes of brilliance for stretches but couldn't be relied on over the long run. He hasn't had a productive full season since 2011.

Graham, on the other hand, has been highly productive for the each of the last four seasons and has missed only two games in his career. The risks associated with Graham are nowhere near the same as they were with Harvin who had a rep as a malcontent and a history of missing chunks of seasons.

 

[Russ Willstrong]

I think Graham is a bully type. He talks big and he will beat people up, but if he gets punched in the nose, he runs away squealing. It's not hard to see why the Hawks D disrespects a guy like that. A bit of a fake tough guy.

That said, there are only a small number of teams in the NFL that can expose this side of Graham. And the worst of them was just removed as a threat.

You obviously don't know much about Graham and how he grew up. Questioning his toughness is the last thing you should do.

You mean the story about how he got beat up bullies and nobody wanted him as a kid? That's supposed to make him tough? Well, it doesn't usually work that way and it didn't for Graham. Maybe it worked that way for you.

You should probably read more of my posts. Very few here have been more positive about this trade or Graham than me. But is he finnesse? Is he a shit talker that doesn't always back it up? Obviously. Watch football. He is definitely a fake tough guy. Don't believe me, ask our defense what they think. I am only stating the obvious.

But I don't really care all that much about it, he's going to help our offense a ton, and I've said like 80 times now that I LOVE the trade. The lack of want-to and the business decisions he makes are not something I expect to matter much.

I also think that he's the kind of guy opponents hate but teammates love. Kind of like Richard Sherman.

Well he does have a point when you consider Graham's troubled past and how resilient Graham has proven to be.
What's more he is very intelligent and ROUTINELY catches the ball over the middle of the field. It's not like Graham sobbed on camera like Brady as he reflected on his life right?

 

[RolandDeschain]

My concern is that we don't really know how to use a TE in the first place. Maybe his height would help Russ in the pocket, but beyond that I'm not confident after seeing Zach Miller go from a 60 catch TE to a 33 catch TE after getting here with Bevell at the helm.

Bingo. We could learn a thing or two from the team we just lost the Super Bowl to in regards to TE utilization.

 

[Recon_Hawk]

My concern is that we don't really know how to use a TE in the first place. Maybe his height would help Russ in the pocket, but beyond that I'm not confident after seeing Zach Miller go from a 60 catch TE to a 33 catch TE after getting here with Bevell at the helm.

Bingo. We could learn a thing or two from the team we just lost the Super Bowl to in regards to TE utilization.

Step 1: Acquire elite tight end
Step 2: ....
Step 3: many super bowls