Jimmy Graham, TE, Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears seemed to make two panic moves this free agency period. Now one of those, the trade for quarterback Nick Foles, might end up working out for Chicago. They badly needed a quarterback who can run Matt Nagy’s offense and just make the right reads and throws on time, and in rhythm. They get that in Foles, a QB with experience in Nagy’s system and the ability to be a point guard type of quarterback.
But they traded a fourth-round pick to acquire him, and took on his contract. Although the Bears and Foles have agreed to a new deal to ease some of the cap implications of the trade, for a team that was already in a difficult cap position, there is not much room to maneuver.
That makes the Graham acquisition even more puzzling.
At one time Graham was a dynamic threat at the tight end position. A true matchup weapon, who could be flexed out to the boundary and operate against defensive backs on the outside with his size and frame, or left inside to run away from linebackers and safeties. But those days are well in the rear-view mirror. Graham saw just 622 snaps last season, his lowest over a 16-game stretch of his career, and he only started in ten contests. Last year’s 60 offensive targets were his lowest since his rookie season, back in 2010. He is not the player he once was.
Despite this, even with their cap situation the Bears gave Graham a two-year, $16 million dollar deal, with $9 million of that guaranteed. That is nearly the same average annual money that the Green Bay Packers gave him in 2018.
You know, the team that just released him.
Now to be fair to Ryan Pace, the tight end market is limited this off-season, and the incoming draft class is not exactly moving the needle a ton. Given the need for something more out of Chicago’s group of tight ends, they had to do something. As it stands now, either Trey Burton gets healthy or Graham returns to form.
Are you betting on either of those occurrences?
Patrick Finley from the Chicago Sun-Times probably put it best, when he wrote this about the move: “The Bears will regret ….Paying Jimmy Graham a higher 2020 average salary than all but five NFL tight ends. Graham will make $8 million next year — as will Trey Burton, the reason the Bears felt obligated to overpay Graham in the first place.”