They are obviously starting pseudo contract talks early by signifying that they respect him enough to put him in a leadership role.
The article explicitly says that they started contract extension talks earlier in the season:
The Patriots and Graham's representatives had initial talks about a contract extension earlier in the season.
I believe this is
news. IIRC, earlier in the season there was reportage quoting Graham as saying there had been no talks. That evidently changed.
I'm very pleased by this, as I'm with Bavaro and believe Graham is a tremendous all-round talent. Look at most every big running play the last four years and you'll see Graham involved with a key block. And surprisingly, if you go back and review the 2003/4 seasons, you'll see Graham making his share of highlight receptions. But I will never forget the way he dominated Julius Peppers in the SuperBowl, both on run and pass plays.
The man is a beast, and hits as hard anyone on the team, as he has extraordinary explosion. People who compare his blocking to that of an extra tackle or slow TE don't appreciate that Graham makes plays in space with his speed and agility that no big slow guy can make. That in particular enables him make key second level blocks that are key to the running game. Folks forget that he has excellent speed for a TE, and having a guy who blocks like a tackle but can get to places where a tackle or slow tight end can not is a huge advantage.
He was known as a receiving TE at Colorado, and he could be much more of a receiving threat if he were used more that way. He doesn't quite have Watson's speed, but he's not slow -- and as we're seeing his hands are actually better than Watson's. I think he's a more valuable player than Watson to this team, with the sole caveat being his chronic injury history.
I've felt for a while that BB would pursue Graham more aggressively than say Branch or Givens, because he's repeatedly said that big, fast, strong guys are the most difficult to find. TE has also been one of the positions he's willing to spend 1st round picks on. I hope and think he's going to try and sign him.
One interesting observation from the article...
Although Graham doesn't have the pass-catching stats that most of the top-tier tight ends do, he is considered one of the best blockers in the league. What might be difficult in negotiations is finding a comparable player to help assign a value to Graham.
...prompts a thought: perhaps they should value Graham comparable to the way Mark Bavaro was valued, as the two have often been compared (including by Bavaro himself). I don't know if relative salaries for that era are still available publicly, but surely BB knows. The idea would be to value Graham relative to current TE's similarly to how Bavaro was valued relative to his contemporaries. And I bet Graham would be honored by the comparison.
