A couple games into his Seattle Seahawks’ career, Jimmy Graham addressed one of the inevitable questions about his blocking with a playful answer.
“I’m a tight end now, shoot,’’ he said with a smile.
Maybe never more so than during Seattle’s 29-13 win over the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday.
As the Seahawks rushed for a season-high 255 yards, with 209 from rookie Thomas Rawls, Graham was asked to run block more than at any time during his Seahawks’ career.
According to Pro Football Focus, Graham spent 30 of the 58 snaps he was in for run blocking, the first time in his Seahawks’ career that he has spent more than 50 percent of his snaps run blocking.
According to PFF, that raised the percentage of snaps for the season he has spent run blocking to 37 percent.
In New Orleans last year, he was asked to run block on 27 percent of snaps.
That’s the kind of comparison that might help fuel the arguments for those who question how the Seahawks have been using Graham.
But the numbers also make some sense given the difference in the two offenses. New Orleans ran it just 37 percent of its snaps last season (and has almost the same ratio this year) while the Seahawks are now at almost a 50-50 run pass ratio — 307 rushes to 295 passes and close to the 48.41 percent runs to passes the Seahawks had last year (Seattle has the second-highest run-pass ratio this season, same as it did last season).
And while some might also wonder if those are wasted snaps for Graham given his reputation as a blocker, Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable argues otherwise.
Cable, in fact, said the blocking of the tight ends and receivers was an unheralded but significant factor in the success of the running game against the 49ers.
“You have to give that group some credit because we were consistent upfront, which was a big plus,’’ Cable said.”But where we were at on the perimeter at tight end and receiver made a huge difference because that’s how you get those big numbers.’’
Cable said the game might have been Graham’s best as a run blocker for the Seahawks.
“Really, he is starting to understand where he fits and why and how (into Seattle’s blocking schemes) and then it becomes a fundamentals thing,’’ Cable said. “His biggest challenge is getting his big body into a better leverage position.’’
What the Seahawks are not asking Graham to do is pass block. According to PFF, he has stayed in to block on passes just 24 times all season, or 4.4 percent of his total 545 snaps, actually not a lot different than a year ago with the Saints when he stayed in to pass block 27 times, or about 3.4 percent of snaps.