Is Jimmy Graham A Difference Maker?

Many Nfl teams have been busy this off season. Normally there are several free agent aquisitions but there are not many trades. 2015 was not a regular year. It started off with LeSean McCoy being traded from Philadelphia to Buffalo. Although the trade was surprising it was only the beginning.

Possibly the the second biggest surprise of the off season was the Seattle Seahawks trading for The New Orleans Saints top receiver Jimmy Graham. Will he help The Seahawks get to a third consecutive Super Bowl?

The New Orleans Saints traded away one of their biggest offensive threats to the Seattle Seahawks. Along with Graham they also gave up a fourth round draft pick in the 2015 NFL draft.

The Saints received a 2015 first round draft choice and Center Max Unger. Unger was considered the corner stone of the Seahawks offensive line, but he was often injured.

The Seahawks and Saints are two polar opposites when it comes to how they play the game. The Seahawks focus on the run game, and a strong defense. The Saints play a high powered passing game where they would prefer to score thirty points a game and make their opponents make mistakes trying to keep up with the Saints.

Drew Brees, the quarterback of the Saints threw for almost five thousand yards in the 2014 season. Where as The Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw for thirty-four hundred yards. Since the Seahawks throw significantly less than the Saints where will Graham fit into the Seattle passing game?

The most important statistic in football is the touchdown. If the team can't score, they can't win. Jimmy Graham has averaged ten touchdowns a season for his entire five year career. The Seahawks receiving are big play threats, but they do not score a lot of touchdowns. Graham has a chance to change that the important statistic.

Yardage is an important statistic for a player because high impact running backs or receivers gain a high amount of yardage to help their team continue scoring drives and giving themselves an opportunity to score several touchdowns.

In the 2014 season the Seahawks had one receiver that gained over five-hundred yards. All of the other receivers gained significantly less than five hundred yards. The addition of Graham to the offense brings a player that has averaged 975 yards a season for his entire five year career, including a year in which he had 1310 yards. A significant increase for a stagnant Seattle passing game.

Many teams have receivers that can't catch a lot of passes. By adding Graham to the Seahawks offense they now have a receiver that can catch the ball regularly. He caught an average 77 passes a season for his short time in New Orleans. The most reception caught by any Seattle receiver was sixty-eight catches. Another reason why Graham will impact the Seahawks offense.

Early March the Seahawks and Saints made a blockbuster trade. The significance of the trade seems to be more favorable for Seattle. They got Jimmy Graham for a relatively low price, and it can change the Seahawks offense for the near future. Graham may not get the same numbers that he did at New Orleans, he does add a weapon to Seattle's offense that they did not have previously.

The Seahawks will have to add some wrinkles to their offense that they did not in the past. They like to run the ball , and with a player like Marshawn Lynch they will keep the run game as a key. The biggest change the Seahawks may have to deal with; they will throw the ball a few more times this season.