The Broncos signed tight end Daniel Graham, formerly of the New England Patriots and a one-time University of Colorado star, to a five-year, $30 million contract with $15 million in guarantees.
The length of the deal is kind of a funny conicidence, because five years is exactly how long it's been since I would have cared that the Broncos acquired Graham.
Admittedly, I'm excited. The first time I saw Graham play live, my brother ("John" in the comments) told me to keep an eye on him. Glad I did. He was incredible! Not only was Graham one of CU's finest blockers (back then, that meant something), he was easily its most clutch receiver. I left that game knowing he'd be a star.
As a pro, Graham has 1,393 receiving yards. That's not last year. Not in his best year. But in his entire five-year career. What happened? I don't really know. He had some problems with drops for a while, but he just never became a central part of the Patriots' offense. Instead, guys like Deion Branch emerged as Tom Brady's favored targets. (Graham won some nice jewelry with New England, so I doubt he's too upset about how life turned out.)
As anyone watching Tony Scheffler last year learned, the Broncos will never hesitate to throw to a tight end, no matter how many passes he drops. Graham could end up a pretty good pick-up; I just can't believe the money everyone is throwing around.
Some historical persepctive: After the 1999 season, the Broncos let the game's premier tight end, Shannon Sharpe, go to the Ravens. Sharpe was returning from a broken collarbone suffered the season before, but he'd also squabbled with the team over money for a few years. The Ravens landed Sharpe for a four-year, $13.8 million deal that had a $4.5 million signing bonus. (I got those numbers from Pro Football Weekly.) Sharpe lasted only two years in Baltimore before being cut for salary-cap reasons. It's been seven years, but Graham making that much more than Sharpe is insane.
Comments
I am excited about Graham as well. I think he was underutilized in New England not only because of the emergence of other receivers but also by the Patriots' style of play (a lot of two tight end sets and infrequent play calling to the tight end). He has the body and the hands to patrol the middle and be a sure-handed option for Cutler, which we desperately need with the aging of Rod Smith.
I have no idea if we'll regret the deal because I don't know what the cap's going to look like in a few years. Will salaries escalate at the same rate, or is this the one-year abberation that teams hope it is? It's tough to judge contracts because they're so crazy this year...but we still probably overpaid by at least a bit.
If I was going to criticize Soriano for anything, it'd be his near-comical tendency to swing at everything, though he actually walked a bunch last year.
anyone who could do that (insert some fancy euphemism).
seriously though, he was so impressive he beat out shockey for whatever award that is that they win for being the best TE, not to mention, he had buttery soft hands and was a pretty adroit runner downfield. reminded me a lot of shannon sharpe.
it is worth questioning how he will perform in this system considering he came to the league with such accolades, although i too echo the comments that he never got a fare look as the premier TE, starting out he was playing under ben winter coates if i'm not mistaken.
if he could hit the potential that he seemed to have in college, this could be a great deal.
chances are - well... about as good as belicheck (sp?) not looking like a hobo on opening day with his stretched out sweatshirt and 3/4 sleeves his wife made for him
Part of the reason the team used a first-rounder on another tight end in Watson had to be disappointment in Graham, so I hope we're not all kidding ourselves here.
re: not kidding ourselves
true, bike mike shanahan was the first to be duped