The Seahawks stayed in the thick of the NFC playoff hunt with a 39-30 win over the Steelers on Sunday, but the victory comes with bad news. Tight end Jimmy Graham suffered a patellar tendon injury during the game and will undergo season-ending surgery, according to head coach Pete Carroll (Twitter link via the team). The recovery timeline will be six to nine months, per Dr. David Chao of SiriusXM (Twitter link).
Prior to departing in the fourth quarter, Graham was having one of his best games of 2015 with four receptions for 75 yards. He had to be carted off the field with an air cast on his right leg after landing awkwardly on an incomplete pass in Pittsburgh’s end zone.
Graham finishes the season, his first in Seattle, with 48 catches for 605 yards and two touchdowns. Considering what Seattle gave up for Graham in the offseason – center Max Unger and a first-round pick – it was a disappointing campaign for the three-time Pro Bowler. The ex-Saint came to the Seahawks fresh off four straight seasons of at least 85 catches and 880-plus yards, also racking up a prolific 46 touchdowns during that span.
While Graham’s production tailed off this season, he’s still a big loss for quarterback Russell Wilson and the 6-5 Seahawks – who will continue fighting for their playoff lives over the final five weeks. Graham is currently second on the Seahawks in both receptions and yards, trailing only wideout Doug Baldwin. The team’s second-most productive tight end, Luke Wilson, has just 12 catches this year.
Not like they used him anyway
@TheMichigan,
Just because they don’t run the same game plan as The Saints doesnmean they don’t use him. It’s a run first offense. Apparently you don’t know Seahawks football.
My team is having a bad year admittedly but they are now in a Wild Card and that’s all they need is a chance. They took care of business at the Clink and they did it without him. With Rawls and Tyler Lockett we have great rookies that are true weapons and Luke Wilson isn’t a slouch.
Honestly if I have a 6’8 something Tight end that I traded for using a decent top of the line center I would use him more. Not just for blocks. And I wasn’t really commenting on the Seahawks on a whole, I’m commenting on how the Seahawks, and their OC and maybe Carroll are not using him and to me that’s extremely foolish. You have a VERY VERY productive player in Jimmy Graham, and they miss used him if you trade one of your decent O line men for a 6’8ish Tight end I would expect you to use him, and use him a lot like the saints did. Just what I’m saying is that the Seahawks were defiantly using him wrong by having him block rather than using him as a threat in the passing game.
Graham’s lack of involvement coupled with the Seahawks advancing to back-to-back Super Bowls without an upper-echelon tight end doesn’t make this as damaging as losing this talent would in a vacuum. An offseason to further integrate post-rehab will help Graham as he remains a part of this well-assembled nucleus.
You have to think Seattle will spend its offseason thinking through how to get Graham more involved in the passing game. I actually thought he would have made for an interesting trade candidate this offseason, but this injury quashes any chance of that.