Three years ago, the Buccaneers specifically drafted safety Mark Barron to counter Saints tight end Jimmy Graham. With the Bucs trading Barron last season to the Rams, St. Louis already presumably has their in-house answer for covering the very tall target.
Will the 49ers be able to handle Graham?
“Not unless you can find a 6-6 safety,” G.M. Trent Baalke said, via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. “If you can find one of those, I’ll take him.”
As Maiocco notes, the 49ers used linebacker Patrick Willis to cover Graham. Last year, Graham caught 10 passes for 76 yards and two touchdowns against the 49ers. (But the Saints didn’t win the game, reinforcing the team’s belief that there’s not a great correlation between Graham’s performance and team success.)
“We’ve seen him a lot,” Baalke said, regarding Graham. “He’s a heck of a talent. But to get a heck of a talent, they had to give up some stuff, too. They gave up a center [Max Unger] that we personally didn’t like playing against a lot. He was an awfully good football player. But they gained an awfully good football player.”
Graham is an awfully good football player, but the Saints ultimately decided that he’s a luxury. Now, the 49ers believe they have a necessity when it comes to stopping him.
The good news (and bad news) for the 49ers is that this specific problem isn’t very high on their overall list of problems.