Time to resign Graham?

BlueHen · Oct 4, 2006

Isn't Graham's contract set to expire? From what I have seen, he has been a much more important piece to the offense this year. Not just the great run blocking and pass protection, but also catching some passes.

patsox23 · Oct 4, 2006

Yes, Newbie, he is. Rumor has it he is one of the main upcoming FA's that the Patriots will NOT work that hard to re-up. Asante and Koppen are more likely to be extended. Word is Graham wants to go elsewhere so he can be more of an offensive force and less often a blocker.

HAMMERMILL · Oct 4, 2006

I expect Denver to throw obcene amounts of money for him.
Would love to resign him,but don't see it happening.

Mike the Brit · Oct 4, 2006

I think that we may have to resign ourselves to the fact that he is not going to be re-signed.

MrClutch · Oct 4, 2006

We still got Watson and Thomas.

RayClay · Oct 4, 2006

Interesting situation. Although he is a good all around player, he hasn't exactly set the world on fire offensively.

And teams don't throw huge money at blocking TEs. They might just let him test the market then sign him if he doesn't get great offers.

Kdo5 · Oct 4, 2006

MrClutch said:
We still got Watson and Thomas.

Yeah yeah yeah. We still have Watson. Watson Watson Watson. I hope you understand that Daniel Graham is the best TE on the Patriots and is a crucial part to this offense. He is one of the best blocking tight ends in football now and he can fly under the radar and make big catches here and there. We need to resign Graham. Jesus, its as if some people here just dont know how big a role Graham plays in this offense. He deserves a good contract and the Patriots should give him one. We should not let him slip away to another team.

JustWinBrady · Oct 4, 2006

Personally, if a contract can't be worked out, it wouldn't surprise me to see him franchised. I believe it is somewhere around ~3.4 / Year. He'll either be signed or traded. The Pats will get some value back. Franchising a DB or OL is much more expensive.

patsfan13 · Oct 4, 2006

Kdo5 said:
Yeah yeah yeah. We still have Watson. Watson Watson Watson. I hope you understand that Daniel Graham is the best TE on the Patriots and is a crucial part to this offense. He is one of the best blocking tight ends in football now and he can fly under the radar and make big catches here and there. We need to resign Graham. Jesus, its as if some people here just dont know how big a role Graham plays in this offense. He deserves a good contract and the Patriots should give him one. We should not let him slip away to another team.

Bingo! You stole my thinder. Graham is a elite player at his position iand is worth top dollar. IMO he ias worth more $ to this team than Branch was.

TE are cheaper (more cost effictive?) than WR's BB has used a lot of top picks on this position showing how HE values the position and the difficulty of finding guys with the right physical tools and skill sets, sort of like DLmen.

PonyExpress · Oct 4, 2006

Graham is inconsistent in every phase of the game. Sometimes, like the Cleveland game in '03, he'll blow you away with 7 catches for 110 yards. Then you won't here from him for weeks, and he'll drop passes, and look like a stumbling, bumbling uncoordinated lumberjack. Then he'll catch a mean pass in traffic, break a tackle and look like the Mackey award winner we thought we were getting. I say let him go. Someone else will shower him with gold and we can root for him from afar where his inconsistency can't hurt us.

SamBam39 · Oct 4, 2006

PonyExpress said:
Graham is inconsistent in every phase of the game. Sometimes, like the Cleveland game in '03, he'll blow you away with 7 catches for 110 yards. Then you won't here from him for weeks, and he'll drop passes, and look like a stumbling, bumbling uncoordinated lumberjack. Then he'll catch a mean pass in traffic, break a tackle and look like the Mackey award winner we thought we were getting. I say let him go. Someone else will shower him with gold and we can root for him from afar where his inconsistency can't hurt us.

oooow pony man!
why don't you tell us how you really feel?

that's pretty interesting!

not sure I disagree. I know he's thought of as invaluable for his blocking,
so my guess is most would disagree, but I have seen alot of incosistancy from him on offensive plays.

BradyManny · Oct 4, 2006

Does anyone have any ideas how Thomas blocking is? Just from eyeballing Watson this year, it seems his blocking is progressing very nicely. If Watson can achieve close to Graham's level of blocking and Thomas can achieve close to Watson's current level of blocking, then I doubt we see Graham back. Didn't we draft 2 TEs for this very reason?

It's the same thing over and over - the only two type of contracts the Pats like are rookie contracts or veterans looking for rings, unless your name is Tom Brady or Richard Seymour, you probably aren't going to spend the middle portion of your career in New England. But that's how we win championships.

hwc · Oct 4, 2006

patsfan13 said:
Graham is a elite player at his position iand is worth top dollar.

OK. So what is top dollar? Here are the top five on this year's franchise tag list:

Tony Gonzales money? $4.8 million a year?

Kellen Winslow money? $3.6 million a year?

Kyle Brady money? $3.1 million a year?

Jeremey Shockey money? $2.7 million a year?

Algae Crumpler money? $2.4 million a year?

Todd Heap money (10th highest paid)? $1.8 million a year?

Keep in mind that top 10 TEs catch 60+ balls a year. Graham's best receiving year was 38 catches.

flutie2phelan · Oct 4, 2006

BradyManny2344 said:
....
It's the same thing over and over - the only two type of contracts the Pats like are rookie contracts or veterans looking for rings, unless your name is Tom Brady or Richard Seymour, you probably aren't going to spend the middle portion of your career in New England. But that's how we win championships.

Excellent discussion, above, gentlemen.

I'm guessing the FO pegs Grahambo's value somewhere in the neighborhood of a 2.5 mil cap hit.
Say we offer him that. Is that good for us? For him?

Since he is a Patriots stalwart, "someone" will offer him 20-25% more.
Let's say he signs there.
We then collect a 4th- or 5th-round comp pick (net of all our other FA activity).
Not too shabby.

Thomas is here already.
Who needs to franchise Ben?
But that ain't such a terrible idea either ... if it should happen.

These considerations have the effect of
focusing me on
re-signing Dan Koppen.

patsfan13 · Oct 4, 2006

hwc said:
OK. So what is top dollar? Here are the top five on this year's franchise tag list:

Tony Gonzales money? $4.8 million a year?

Kellen Winslow money? $3.6 million a year?

Kyle Brady money? $3.1 million a year?

Jeremey Shockey money? $2.7 million a year?

Algae Crumpler money? $2.4 million a year?

Todd Heap money (10th highest paid)? $1.8 million a year?

Keep in mind that top 10 TEs catch 60+ balls a year. Graham's best receiving year was 38 catches.

IMO Graham is worth Top 5 money. BB places a high value on Te's and feels they are hard to find and are essential to the type of O he wants to run. Other than DL he has used more 'precious' Rd 1 picks on TE's that tells you a lot.

Graham is the BEST blocking TE in FB period. I think his rep for dropping passes is from his first year or two andis obsolete at this point. Heck Watson has dropped a few this year.

Remember Mark Bravaro said in the article posted here that Graham was the best all around TE in FB. Frankly I'll take his word for it over anyone on this board.

TP76 · Oct 4, 2006

I hope we do resign him...

and I think he's very important to the Pats. He's just not featured that much in the passing game. Denver wants him badly though... Considering he played ball for Colorado, and his father was a Bronco, it's only natural that he would probably want to play for the Broncos. Perhaps there's and understanding that if he played out his rookie contract he would be allowed to leave without fear of trade/franchise tag. Regardless, I'd really hate to see him in a Bronco uniform next year.

He's defintely one of the best all around TEs in the NFL. He does everything well... In college he was a terror receiving, broke numerous school records and his YAC was insane. Perhaps he has an itch to be more featured, he won't get that opportunity here, however.

SamBam39 · Oct 4, 2006

he seemed to have an attitude about signing here.
he said something about giving them one chance to get it right.

I think he's gonna flee.
it's ok.

we'll survive.

we drafted two tightends this year in the 3rd and 4th rounds.

JoeSixPat · Oct 4, 2006

Everyone here thinks I'm a Graham basher because I've expressed my opinion that the former 1st round draft choice has underperformed, failing to live up to expectations

But that doesn't mean I wouldn't want him with the team long term - its just a question of at what price.

So if you want Graham back, the time to re-sign him is sooner rather than later. Barring injury his price only goes up from here - and once he's a free agent some other team will definately overpay for him.

So if you want him back, you should want them to sign him now.

PaulNEPats · Oct 4, 2006

Does Graham want to come back? Like what was mentioned earlier in this thread, he'll probably want to go to a team where he'll have a featured role in the offense, catching more balls. Ultimately it'll come down to how reasonable his expectations are in terms of a new contract. I wouldn't mind seeing him franchised.

TP76 · Oct 4, 2006

PaulNEPats said:
Does Graham want to come back? Like what was mentioned earlier in this thread, he'll probably want to go to a team where he'll have a featured role in the offense, catching more balls. Ultimately it'll come down to how reasonable his expectations are in terms of a new contract. I wouldn't mind seeing him franchised.

I have a hunch the Pats will let him go if that's what he wishes... I would be very surprised to see them franchise him. Personally I think they probably already have an agreement in place. Graham has been a consumate professional, has honored his contract in good faith and been a total team player (excelling at what they ask of him with no complaints). IMO they probably let him go if he wishes, as a reward for his years of service.

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