Drew Brees had a similar reaction to the Jimmy Graham trade as most: He was surprised.
“I’m as shocked as everyone else,” Brees said in response to the Tuesday’s trade via NFL Media’s Alex Flanagan. “I love the guy.”
Graham was dealt to Seattle along with a fourth-round pick for center Max Unger and a first-round pick. Graham signed a big contract with the Saints last year after skipping minicamp and is set to earn $7.9 million this season, $8.9 million in 2016, and $7.9 million in 2017. The Saints were so far over the salary cap that trading Graham made sense to them.
Even though Brees was “shocked” by the trade, the quarterback has expressed confidence in his offense’s ability to produce even without Graham.
“Look at our numbers over the last eight years,” he said last year when Graham skipped mandatory minicamp. “We’ve had a lot of different guys in there. Jimmy’s only been here four years. He’s only been here half the time. We were putting up some pretty big numbers before he got here, and we’ve been putting up some big numbers since he’s been here.
“Hey, we do what we do. It’s nice when you can have guys like Jimmy, and obviously he’s a big part of our offense. If he’s in there, we’re going to try to get him the ball. We’re game-planning ways to get him the ball, ways to put him in the best position to succeed. But if he’s not, somebody else is going to get those touches. We’ll put those guys in position.”
Graham has caught 51 touchdown passes since 2010 and at least 85 passes each of the past three seasons. The guy is obviously a big weapon and will not be easy to replace, but the trade makes some sense. Graham battled a shoulder injury last year that limited his production, and the team only went 7-9 even with him. I bet they have concerns about his shoulder for the future.
Sometimes when you put yourself in a bad spot with the salary cap, you have to make tough decisions like trading a top player, which is what they did.
