halloween 65

I think that is to much, 5 mil is to much, could save a butt load of money and draft 1 if need be. I'm not saying your wrong by no means and I kind of under stand the market price(don't always agree with the market price) there are some good TE's in this years draft.

Mardigras9

Graham is just an example of the "new" tight end mold. He is good, but as we have have seen, can be shut down. If his contract is going to hurt the development of the team we got to let him walk. He's not Brees (irreplaceable).

NonieT

Maybe he needs to spend a little time with Tony Gonzales this off season. He could teach how him to treat press man coverage and he might become a better blocker after he spends a little time with Gonzales. Gonzales has said in the past that he likes Graham so I don't see why he wouldn't help him. Jimmy could benefit from spending some time with the best TE to ever play the game.

TheOak

Sort of along the lines of the "new breed of QB". After a season Defenses figured it out.

ikecomp

I love me some graham, however this offense has never been about one weapon except brees as he's the orchestrator. The only reason graham started to emerge is because we lost the tandem threat we had when meacham and henderson started to slow down. Offer graham good tightend money but do not even get close to top WR money.

As good as graham is, I would still take megatron, brandon marshall or even dez bryant above graham. All three are physical wideouts who can not be bullied out of a game or intimidated plus they can make the same plays imho opinion as graham if brees is throwing them the ball. I would love to keep him but not at the expense of the rest of the team. He has franchise talent but he is not a franchise player. There is a difference.

dizzle88

Jimmy needs to spend more time with jeremy shockey

Jimmy is twice the pure athlete shockey was but boy would shockey put a hurting on somebody if they got in his way

onanygivenSu

Relative to what to pay Graham, it's better to think in terms of cap hit instead of base salary. Base salaries can be misleading.

If you look at the 2014-2016 cap hits for the Top 5 TEs in the league, which Graham is arguably one, you're looking at a cap hit of roughly $8M/year.

So in my opinion, a reasonable contract for Jimmy would be very close, or slightly higher than what Jared Cook got from St. Louis last March, which was 5 years, $35.1M total, $19M guaranteed and with a $5M signing bonus. Jared Cook and Jimmy Graham essentially play the same position except that Jimmy currently outperforms Cook.

Graham will likely command at least an $8.5M annual cap hit on the open market. The Saints could get a slight home town discount but nowhere near $2M-3M/year.

JMO

onanygivenSu

On the open market, Jimmy Graham will command Jared Cook-like money.

Last March, the Rams signed Cook to a 5-year, $35M contract with $19M guaranteed and with a signing bonus of $5M.

That equates to an annual cap hit of $7M in 2014, $8M in both 2015 and 2016, and $8.1M in 2017.

Graham and Cook essentially play the same position and Graham is currently the better player.

Expecting Graham to re-sign with the Saints at $5M to $6M is unrealistic in my opinion.

Apologize for almost duplicate posts... connection problems.

MaggieMayTB

I am not a NFL coach.
SP is a NFL coach.
My opinion adds no value to Benson's franchise.

My opinion is Jimmy Graham remains a New Orleans Saint.

Utah_Saint

If you look at just yards for the season. Graham finished 15th among wide receivers.

Of the recievers that finished ahead of him, 4 are still on their rookie contracts. Of the others their contracts average annually as follows

1. Josh Gordon - Rookie Contract
2. Antonio Brown - $7.17 million
3. Calvin Johnson - $18.75 million
4. Demaryus Thomas - 2.43 million
5. A.J. Green - Rookie Contract
6. Alshon Jeffery - Rookie Contract
7. Andre Johnon - 8.9 million
8. Pierre Garcon - 8.5 million
9. DeSean Jackson - 9.4 million
10. Jordy Nelson - 3.5 million
11. Brandon Marshall - 9.4 million
12. Eric Decker - .625 million
13. Des Bryant - Rookie Contract
14. Vincent Jackson - 11.1 million

That averages out to just at 8 million per year among recievers.

Among TEs, Rob Gronkowski set the benchmark at 9 million per year.

Now when you factor in Graham was number 1 in the league at touch downs and he was top 10 in plays over 20 yard. Also, the fact that he poses particular match up problems for most teams and that he's reached superstar value and will sell beaucoup merchendise. I would guess his market value in the offseason will be around 9 or 10 million per year maybe more to a team that has the money and thinks they're a TE away from the Super Bowl.

Just a wild guess though.