Jimmy Graham is the Help the Chicago Bears Need

Overtime Heroics Editorial

1988 days ago

The Chicago Bears needed tight end help bad after this past season. Last season, six tight ends caught passes for the Chicago Bears. Of those six, J.P. Holtz led all of them with 91 receiving yards. None of the Bears’ tight ends could stay healthy. Ryan Pace saw an issue and he addressed it. Ryan Pace went out and signed five-time Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham. From that perspective, this looks like a brilliant move. On the flip side, Graham is now 33, he is coming off his least productive season in his career since his rookie season, and the Bears paid him pretty good money. Now, why is this a good thing?

The Money

Graham got a generous contract in a two-year, $16 million contract with $9 million guaranteed. This sounds awful for a 33-year-old tight end, but it isn’t as bad as those think.

For reference, Graham was the second-most productive tight end on the market from the 2019 season behind Austin Hooper who got a mega-deal with the Cleveland Browns. The next most productive tight end was Eric Ebron who got a similar deal to Graham but doesn’t nearly have the accolades of Graham or the hands. Even Tyler Eifert, who has played in less than half of his games in the past four seasons, got a similar deal. All in all, that is the market for a proven tight end.

Production

Graham has seen his production go down since he went to Green Bay. Even after a 10 touchdown season in 2017 with the Seattle Seahawks, Graham only caught five in the last two seasons combined. Part of the reason for that is Aaron Rodgers rarely uses his tight ends. People claim this isn’t the case, but Jared Cook struggled to get the ball in Green Bay in 2016. Once he left and went to Oakland, Cook had 900 receiving yards in 2018 and then 700 in New Orleans. Tight ends normally do better away from Rodgers.

Another common insight is that Graham has “lost a step” and isn’t fast anymore. In fact, Graham has done very well with his speed getting open and does well with the ball after he has caught it. Last season, Graham was fifth amongst all tight ends in yards after catch per reception with 6.8 according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Ahead of him were Noah Fant, Jonnu Smith, George Kittle, and Darren Waller. All three of those guys move well because they are young and entering or in their primes. Graham is 33 and he hangs with their numbers.

Fit with the Bears

Graham fits great with this current Bears tight end group. No one seemed to be able to stay healthy while on the other hand, Graham hasn’t missed a game since 2015 when he missed five. Graham may be getting old, but he has a much healthier resume than the likes of Trey Burton, Adam Shaheen, and Ben Braunecker. It also helps that Graham is a great outlet pass who knows how to get open for his quarterback. This will help Mitchell Trubisky or Nick Foles a lot at quarterback.

Most importantly, tight end is one of the most important keys to the Matt Nagy offense. Burton being hurt most of the season hurt his offense greatly. Him being out was a big reason the offense took a step back in 2019. Nagy’s offense is very similar to that of Doug Pederson of Philadelphia and Andy Reid‘s of Kansas City. Both of these offenses have an elite number one tight end and in Philadelphia, they have a great number two. Having a healthy, reliable, experienced tight end will not only help the quarterback, but it will help the offense as a whole.

So, What’s the Problem?

The problem people see with this move is they think Graham is washed-up because of his age and lack of production in Green Bay. Plenty of tight ends play into their mid-thirties and can still do very well. Delanie Walker when he was 33 had a Pro Bowl season tallying 807 yards and three touchdowns catching 74 passes. When Ben Watson was 35 he caught 74 passes for 825 yards and six touchdowns for the Saints. There are plenty of other examples who perform in their mid-thirties. Why can’t Graham?

To Wrap It Up

Basically, Graham is going to be a key piece of this offense. It remains to be seen how big his role will be given the unknowns surrounding the quarterback position and Burton’s health, but Graham will give a lot of help to this offense both on the field and behind the scenes. He may not pop out on the stat sheet, but he will definitely open up the offense more giving the quarterback a strong security blanket.

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