Rapoport: Jimmy ahead of schedule, likely ready by opener

[Hasselbeck]

Hopefully they play it safe, bring him back early December so he's rested/healed and in mid season form for the playoffs.

Either way, it sounds like he won't be the player he was before. Hopefully doctors are wrong.

How would he be in midseason form after not playing for a year?

 

[kf3339]

Wait until the third preseason game on both Graham and Rawls. We will then have a better idea of their health status. Any assumption before then is just guesses. Some perhaps more informed than others, but still just guesses.

That's what this message board thrives on......"educated guesses".

That's my point. :lol:

 

[Rob12]

Hopefully they play it safe, bring him back early December so he's rested/healed and in mid season form for the playoffs.

Either way, it sounds like he won't be the player he was before. Hopefully doctors are wrong.

I used to think that way, but then I thought I sounded ridiculous (not saying you do).

If his truly ahead of schedule and ready to go by Week 1, he's going to play. They're paying him a lot of money. He can be such a huge boost to this offense.

He doesn't rely on the explosiveness that others do who have suffered this same injury. Every individual reacts differently to injuries. Maybe some ground breaking medical or rehab information was found out during his time on the shelf and he truly will be ready to go Week 1. I trust that if that's the case, the coaches and medical staff will make the right decision regarding JG.

 

[Rob12]

Someone made a good point in the other thread that Graham's game isn't really predicated on explosiveness like Victor Cruz' is. Which means that assuming he can get on the field, he's likely to lose less of his value to the offense.

That was me, I think (and many others, I am sure).

I just think comparing Graham to others who have suffered the same injury is a tad bit lazy, and a complete apples and oranges comparison.

His game is predicated on his size. He's 6'7". When he's down field, it's hard to cover him, even if he's clocking a 5.3 40.

I think he has a great couple of years with the Seahawks in his future.

 

[massari]

Hopefully they play it safe, bring him back early December so he's rested/healed and in mid season form for the playoffs.

Either way, it sounds like he won't be the player he was before. Hopefully doctors are wrong.

How would he be in midseason form after not playing for a year?

By playing the last month / month 1/2 of the season. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[massari]

Hopefully they play it safe, bring him back early December so he's rested/healed and in mid season form for the playoffs.

Either way, it sounds like he won't be the player he was before. Hopefully doctors are wrong.

He doesn't rely on the explosiveness. I trust that if that's the case, the coaches and medical staff will make the right decision regarding JG.

Doesn't rely on explosiveness? That's kind of what he does, run and jump and stuff to go with sharp cuts on routes.

Didn't they rush Lynch back last season when he wasn't ready?

 

[Shadowhawk]

Sometimes I don't get the rationale that games early on are not important because they ARE. Having him early is a huge deal, having him for all games is a huge deal.

16 game schedule means games in September are just as important as December games. Think home field advantage.

Exactly this. The Seahawks won 6 out of their last 7 regular season games last year and looked virtually unstoppable for most of that run. In spite of this, they lost out on a playoff bye and had to go play a Wild Card game at Ice Station Zebra because they started the season 2-4 and had no realistic opportunity to take the division title.

Early games count, too. If Graham is healthy week one, he is and should be playing week one.

 

[hawk45]

Someone made a good point in the other thread that Graham's game isn't really predicated on explosiveness like Victor Cruz' is. Which means that assuming he can get on the field, he's likely to lose less of his value to the offense.

That was me, I think (and many others, I am sure).

I just think comparing Graham to others who have suffered the same injury is a tad bit lazy, and a complete apples and oranges comparison.

His game is predicated on his size. He's 6'7". When he's down field, it's hard to cover him, even if he's clocking a 5.3 40.

I think he has a great couple of years with the Seahawks in his future.

He may not rely on explosiveness per se but his fluid athleticism running routes and jumping ability have been big factors in making him the game changer he has been. His highlights are filled with effortless glides down the field and changes of direction, followed by acrobatic leaps and catches. I would say his athleticism is the one thing separating him from the other good pass-catching TEs and elevating him to great.

To me, Jimmy after losing a step starts to look like BMW: a guy with a nice catch radius who can be a nice bit player, but not some dangerous weapon keeping opposing DCs up at night.

Hopefully I'm spectacularly wrong about this. Either that, or he comes back all the way from the injury.

 

[Attyla the Hawk]

As far as I'm concerned whatever we get from Graham is pure gravy.

This is a SB contender without him. He's definitely a talented, if enigmatic player for us. If he's not ready for the opener, I'm not going to sweat it one bit. Honestly if he needs to be PUPed to start the year I'm good with that too. This isn't a team whose postseason outlook depends on what he provides. I'd much rather incorporate his talents late in the year and throughout a championship run than worry about what he gives us in September.

Jimmy is a player who physically doesn't require the same amount of explosion that others do to succeed. So I'm fairly bullish on his impact for us even in a compromised state.

 

[RiverDog]

Wait until the third preseason game on both Graham and Rawls. We will then have a better idea of their health status. Any assumption before then is just guesses. Some perhaps more informed than others, but still just guesses.

That's my take, too. I don't put too much credence in these reports, they're designed to get people excited for the season, not to offer an objective analysis of a player's status.

If Graham is going full tilt, making diving grabs of pass attempts in the 3rd preseason game, then and only then I'll start believing the rosy scenario reports. Up until then, at least in my mind, he's a big question mark. The proof will be in the pudding.

 

[cHawkPhan]

Great...means we can hopefully trade him before the season starts. Our offense is better without him. People - he does not know how to block. He said last year he was going to learn - what I saw most of the time was flat out missed blocks with him standing around looking lost as the play continues around him. It was no fluke that our offense exploded once we were able to place a better blocking TE's was in the starting line-up, stopped trying to force the ball to JG and got him off the field . Not saying Willson is a top tier blocker, but any blocking is an improvement over JG's blocking. With JG not being able to practice blocking due to his injury, there will not be any vast improvement in this area for him.
There is a reason we picked up the best blocking TE in the draft. We discovered the importance of a blocking TE in a run first offense last year. I've heard that Vasser has been very impressive in catching passes in the OTA's. If Schneider can move JG this season, he will. I think the sooner the better. I serious doubt that JG, with the injury and a better TE group overall, will get near as many snaps as he has in the past, therefore he will not be putting up huge numbers. At this time, he is more valuable on paper than on the field. Hopefully some other team, looking at his pre-seahawks stats, will still be interested in him.
We may not be able to move him this season. But I definitely do not see him in a Seahawks' uniform come the start of the 2017 season, unless, of course, he puts in a Pro-Bowl season this year and makes me eat my words (Part of me does hopes this happens - but it won't).

Just add JG to the list of over paid receivers the Seahawks brought in, paid, and received little return on their investment.

We are so much better with receivers that we grow on our own - Baldwin, Lockett, Kearse...Largent.

Just my honest opinion

 

[RiverDog]

Great...means we can hopefully trade him before the season starts. Our offense is better without him. People - he does not know how to block. He said last year he was going to learn - what I saw most of the time was flat out missed blocks with him standing around looking lost as the play continues around him. It was no fluke that our offense exploded once we were able to place a better blocking TE's was in the starting line-up, stopped trying to force the ball to JG and got him off the field . Not saying Willson is a top tier blocker, but any blocking is an improvement over JG's blocking. With JG not being able to practice blocking due to his injury, there will not be any vast improvement in this area for him.
There is a reason we picked up the best blocking TE in the draft. We discovered the importance of a blocking TE in a run first offense last year. I've heard that Vasser has been very impressive in catching passes in the OTA's. If Schneider can move JG this season, he will. I think the sooner the better. I serious doubt that JG, with the injury and a better TE group overall, will get near as many snaps as he has in the past, therefore he will not be putting up huge numbers. At this time, he is more valuable on paper than on the field. Hopefully some other team, looking at his pre-seahawks stats, will still be interested in him.
We may not be able to move him this season. But I definitely do not see him in a Seahawks' uniform come the start of the 2017 season, unless, of course, he puts in a Pro-Bowl season this year and makes me eat my words (Part of me does hopes this happens - but it won't).

Just add JG to the list of over paid receivers the Seahawks brought in, paid, and received little return on their investment.

We are so much better with receivers that we grow on our own - Baldwin, Lockett, Kearse...Largent.

Just my honest opinion

For the most part, I agree, and I admire the courage this poster has to make such a statement in front of a lot of fellow 12's.

I never liked this trade. Jimmy Graham was never a good fit for this offense. We're a run first team with a weak pass blocking offensive line that needs their inline tight ends to be able to pass block and help out the tackles, especially now that Okung is gone. Although hurt a lot, Zach Miller was a better pass blocker than most of our interior linemen. Graham was brought in specifically to help our red zone offense, yet he scored just one red zone TD while our offense tumbled to the worst red zone performance BY FAR in the league. Although I'm stopping short of saying that we're better off without him and he was starting to contribute when he got hurt, you can't deny that our offense skyrocketed when he went down. We didn't miss him at all.

Having him in the game at an inline tight end spot makes our offense more predictable as he's such a poor blocker that teams know that we're throwing the ball, or at least not running to his side. IMO we should give up on putting him in a conventional tight end spot and start using him more as a situational wide receiver. He could create some serious mismatches if we line him up outside.