Jimmy Graham was set to be the biggest free agent name on the market this offseason before the New Orleans Saints put the franchise tag on him, but since it was the non-exclusive tag that means teams could give him an offer sheet if they are willing to give up first round picks and teams that could be crazy enough to do it include the Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns.
Graham comes into the offseason as one of the most important players to watch, as many have wondered whether he will challenge the fact that he will be tagged as a tight end. According to ESPN.com, the Saints have used their non-exclusive franchise tag on Graham, who has put up numbers like a wide receiver over the past few seasons and that has brought into question whether he should be paid like a wideout or tight end when the average salary is factored in for the tag. Graham is coming off of his best season and he had 16 touchdowns to lead the league last year and he has scored 41 touchdowns already in just 62 games with the team.
The tight end tag costs $7.04 million this season and the wide receiver tag is considerably more at $12.3 million and now the two sides could be moving towards an extension in the future, which would pay him in the range that Rob Gronkowski gets paid on his contract. Graham could get poached though and while that is every unlikely, it's something that is possible because the Saints used the non-exclusive franchise tag. Chris Mortensen spoke on ESPN and said that the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks could pull off the very surprising move of giving Graham an offer sheet, explaining that since they likely would be giving up "higher" first round picks, that a deal would be worth making.
Mortensen said that this would likely not happen, but when that tag is used, teams can offer Graham an offer sheet with the Saints getting right of first refusal to match the offer and the team that gives it has to give up two first round picks to do it. Mortensen explained that the Seahawks one major area of weakness on offense is at tight end and since they have some money to work with an picks they know are late in the first round (32 this season), they could offer a contract they know the Saints can't match to pull off the move. The Patriots have the picks as well, but that is not something Bill Belichick would consider, while the Raiders have the cap space but wouldn;t want to give up the high draft pick.
Graham is 28-year-old and he has had some great stats over the past three seasons, including in 2011 when he had a career high 99 receptions with 11 touchdowns, while last season he had 1,215 yards and 16 touchdowns. CBS Sports wrote about the possibility of Graham being poached by another team and they explain that technically they could lose Graham to an offer sheet, but that it likely won't happen because of the high price teams would have to pay.
