Jimmy Graham on trade to Seahawks: 'A moment of shock'

Jimmy Graham said he was shocked to learn this week that he had been traded from the Saints to the Seahawks.

Jimmy Grahamsaid he was shocked to learn this week that he had been traded from the Saints to the Seahawks.

In the trade, New Orleans sent Graham and a fourth-round draft pick to Seattle in exchange for center Max Unger and a first-round draft pick.

Graham, a three-time Pro Bowl tight end, indicated that he is looking forward to joining his new team but that there was a moment of "shock" upon learning of the deal.

From The Seattle Times:

When New Orleans coach Sean Payton called to tell Graham that he’d been traded, the tight end immediately worried that a bad team with lots of cap space — Oakland or Jacksonville, perhaps — had acquired him.

“But when he told me Seattle, it definitely put a grin on my face,” Graham said.

[...]

“I’ve had some battles clearly against their defense the last couple of years,” Graham said. “We’ve struggled against them as a team as a whole. It’s probably the one game as a player you always look forward to because they’re always so good, and it’s usually a prime-time game.

“So for me it was a moment of shock, but once that shock cleared, I realized that I was going to the best team in football.”

Graham caught 85 passes for 889 yards and 10 touchdowns last season despite being hampered by a shoulder injury. 

The Seahawks went 12-4 and finished in first place in the NFC West before falling to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl last month.

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