Yeah, Jimmy is freakishly athletic. The only TE perhaps in the history of the league who remotely compares is Vernon Davis. But even he takes a back seat to Graham, in my opinion. Davis is very fast for a TE but he doesn't consistently make plays, and he's been playing the game a lot longer than Jimmy.

I predict a couple years from now this subject will not be worth discussing. Jimmy Graham is going to be light years ahead of everyone else.


Edit: Want to clarify that I think Davis is the only TE who compares athletically, not in overall play. Obviously Gronkowski, Gates (when healthy), Tony Gonzalez in his prime and many others are, or were, better than Davis. Jimmy is in that upper echelon, but Vernon (except against us) just doesn't bring it enough.

Graham and Gronk are pretty even.

Gronk is a better runner after the catch, and run blocker. Graham is faster but lacks some running skills. Gronk runs like a power RB,
Kind of a TE/RB hybrid.

Graham is a better pass catcher, and pass blocker. Gronk can't make the one handed grabs or athletic dives Graham does.
A TE/WR hybrid.

depending on what your offense needs take your pick, but they are pretty even to me.

Agreed. Jimmy needs some work on breaking tackles. I'm sure he'll improve but if you had to pick a weakness, thats his.

yeah, Graham probably won with the players because of his catching ability. He is harder to cover than Gronk man to man, or in double coverage because his 6'7 area of catch ability, and 41' vertical is larger, and has a WR's hands probably from all the basketball training.
He must have caught 5 one handed last year , he makes brees look good.
But your right Dano, he has a problem breaking tackles, and his only good move is to hurtle defenders,lol.

Gronk has some damn good running moves, and can power plow over a defender. I would not want to tackle gronk after the catch for fear of being embarrassed.

I agree that they are fairly even for now. Don't think it will take long for Graham to surpass him in most every phase. I don't quite agree that Gronk is a better runner after the catch. Remember that play he made against the Texans last year, where he dragged defenders on his back for about 20 yards? Also the long TD against the 49ers in the playoffs, that was an incredible play. Those are the big one's that immediately come to mind, but I've seen him make plenty of nice, if not spectacular runs after the catch. I think YAC yards can be a very misleading stat. A lot of it, not all, but a lot has to do with where you catch the ball. If you're getting it in space, you stand to get a lot of extra yardage. The Patriots being an offense built around their tight ends, seemed to take more shots down field to those guys then the Saints did with Graham.

When we've given Jimmy some space to work with down field he's done his best work, but he's also great on the intermediate stuff. I didn't notice where Gronk was any better at breaking loose, but maybe that's just me. If he does need to improve, I am very confident he will.

Yeah, that was a great play:) , but if you watch Gronk he drags guys down the field every week,makes defenders look silly after the catch.
Graham has been tackled by 1 5'10 CB or safety way more than he gets away.

Graham was targeted 30 more times than Gronk last season. I think the YAC is valid in Gronks case. He is never as open as Graham is. Your right YAC is overrated in a lot of cases, but not is this case I believe.
Graham needs to improve in this area, and even if he never does, I don't think it matters.
In the end what really matters is who can catch better for a TE, and thats clearly Graham. He catches things only Colston could.

Rushing/Receiving TD
1. LeSean McCoy*+ · PHI 20
2. Rob Gronkowski*+ · NWE 18
3. Calvin Johnson*+ · DET 16
4. Jordy Nelson · GNB 15
Ray Rice* · BAL 15
6. Cam Newton · CAR 14
7. Marshawn Lynch · SEA 13
Adrian Peterson · MIN 13
9. Arian Foster* · HOU 12
10. Ahmad Bradshaw · NYG 11
Maurice Jones-Drew*+ · JAX 11
Jimmy Graham* · NOR 11
BenJarvus Green-Ellis · NWE 11
Laurent Robinson · DAL 11
Michael Turner · ATL 11

That needs to be taught... Not just to Jimmy. Coleston goes down pretty quick also... On the other hand Lance Moore put in 200% after the catch.

Interesting though is that Graham is 17th in the league for YAC.

Sproles is second and Thomas is fifteenth.
2011 NFL Player Receiving Stats - National Football League - ESPN

[quote=pherein;414338]"Yeah, that was a great play:) , but if you watch Gronk he drags guys down the field every week,makes defenders look silly after the catch.
Graham has been tackled by 1 5'10 CB or safety way more than he gets away.

Graham was targeted 30 more times than Gronk last season. I think the YAC is valid in Gronks case. He is never as open as Graham is. Your right YAC is overrated in a lot of cases, but not is this case I believe.
Graham needs to improve in this area, and even if he never does, I don't think it matters.
In the end what really matters is who can catch better for a TE, and thats clearly Graham. He catches things only Colston could".


Fair enough. A lot of that is Jimmy still trying to bulk up, after being a basketball player for so long. I don't suspect they'll try to add much more weight to him though, because at some point it starts to slow your foot speed.

Thats a Very good point. He might have been a little clumsy last season with all the added weight, that never occurred to me.

YAC is a bit different than breaking tackles. If Graham gets behind the LB's and splits the safeties he can get 40 to 50 yards after the catch without ever being touched.

I think he gets tackled too easily for a man his size. He's not bad, just not as good as he can be.

As he improves he'll start turning those 7 - 8 yard gains into 10 - 15 yard gains.

He needs to improve his Yards After Contact more than he does his Yards After Catch.