Bears Insider

Jimmy Graham, actually, has been totally fine for Bears

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Usually, saying a player has been fine isn’t much of an opinion. Arguing "Hey, this guy is adequate!" doesn't move the needle much. 

But with Jimmy Graham? He's been fine. And that feels kind of like a scorching take as the Bears enter the final week of the regular season. 

Few offseason moves were panned more than the Bears’ signing of Graham to a two-year, $16 million contract with $9 million guaranteed. Graham, well into his 30’s, showed seemingly-clear signs of decline in 2018 and 2019 with the Green Bay Packers. Why were the Bears paying him so much? Who were they bidding against? What play could they have for a once-great but aging tight end?

As it turns out, Graham has been completely, thoroughly fine.

If you look at his tape and just from (Week 16) and play a game of guess his age, like they do at the carnival and you get like a little sticker or whatever it is,” tight ends coach Clancy Barone said, “There is no one on this (Zoom media session) who would guess 34. I’m sure of it.” 

Graham enters Week 17 with 48 catches, 451 yards and eight touchdowns – and, recently, the Bears have done a better job honing in on what the 34-year-old still does well. He’s played fewer snaps since Week 12 (when Mitch Trubisky took over as QB1 again) but is making a greater impact when he’s on the field. And Graham playing 25-35 snaps a game has coincided with coaches, finally, upping their trust in rookie Cole Kmet.

The best thing for Jimmy at this point in his career is Cole Kmet, because Cole can take a lot of the reps off of Jimmy and help him play younger and play faster and not have to go out there and play 65 snaps a game,” Barone said. “All that being said, the best thing for Cole Kmet at this time of his career is Jimmy Graham. You have a fantastic mentor that can teach you all the ins and outs of the game and the proper ways to prepare and everything else.

Kmet raved about how much he’s learned from Graham both on and off the field, and coach Matt Nagy values Graham’s big-game and big-moment experience with the Bears’ playoff hopes on the line in Week 17.

Graham played in eight playoff games from 2010-2019; a good performance Sunday at Soldier Field could earn him his ninth postseason appearance.

I’m just trying to win games and continue to play in January,” Graham said. “Because I believe that’s where I belong, is in January.

“… I love these moments. I’ve been built for these moments.”

Graham, too, was the Bears’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee for his work through the Jimmy Graham Foundation, which aids at-risk youth and military veterans.

Is all this enough for the Bears to keep Graham in Chicago in 2021, when his cap hit will swell to $10 million – and he can be released with $6 million in cap savings? Probably not, given Kmet’s rise and a looming cap crunch this spring.

But if Graham is only in Chicago for a year, what he’s done both on and off the field has been absolutely fine for the money the Bears paid him. Especially if he helps push the Bears into the playoffs.

I think now, greater than ever, for us on offense, he’s a valuable asset,” Nagy said. “Not just because of who he is as a player, but how he practices. His speed right now at practice – his GPS numbers are like crazy good in practice in Week 16. In practice and in the game, he’s rolling right now.

“We joke about him being 39 or whatever he is, and he’s rolling pretty good.”

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