Jimmy Graham put on a one-man show during red zone drills in practice with the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday.
The Seahawks newest addition on offense was practically unstoppable near the goal line in the team’s first workout open to the media with Graham participating since the trade to acquire him from New Orleans in March.
Graham caught four touchdown passes in 7-on-7 drills and added another in full team drills. Any time Graham got singled up on a defender, Russell Wilson was throwing Graham’s direction and finding success in doing so.
“He’s a superstar, he’s going to be one for a long time, and my goal is to help him continue to grow,” Wilson said. “He looked great today, as you guys saw, and that’s how he looks every day, so it’s a spectacular thing.”
Graham said his experience so far with Seattle has exceeded his expectations. Seattle hopes he can create the matchup problems for opposing defenses they thought they were getting in trading for Percy Harvin in 2013.
“His size is tremendous,” offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said. “Obviously with how tall he is already he’s got a great catch radius. He can leap up and catch the ball. He’s flexible enough to - if you throw back-shoulder throws - he can get back there and get those kinds of throws as well. We’re excited to kinda just keep playing with it and see what we have.”
The Seahawks saw first-hand what a big threat at tight end can do in the Super Bowl when Rob Gronkowski feasted on their depleted defense.With Chris Matthews’ breakout performance as well, Seattle could have two large targets now for Wilson to utilize in the red zone.
Graham traveled to Maui with a large contingent of the Seahawks to start developing a chemistry with Wilson in March. Wilson then tripped to Florida last week to attend the funeral of Graham’s manager and mentor Tammy Meyerson.
The off-field relationship appears to be well underway. The on-field relationship will require Graham to adjust to Wilson’s ability to freelance and create big plays out of the structured offense.
"(Wilson’s) ability to extend a play is unbelievable,” Graham said. “Out there in New Orleans, everything was about timing so when you hit that step, that ball is coming. You know the ball is coming out. And now when you hit a step and look back, maybe he saw something and now he’s scrambling so there’s a second opportunity. This offense and this team is dangerous on those second opportunities. When he gets out of the pocket and he’s able to work and kind of play street ball, which I’ve always been pretty good at, the offense is extremely explosive.”