{"id":82188,"date":"2020-03-16T19:45:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T23:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=82188"},"modified":"2020-03-16T19:47:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T23:47:46","slug":"jimmy-graham-signs-with-the-chicago-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/03\/16\/jimmy-graham-signs-with-the-chicago-bears\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Graham Signs With the Chicago Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Free agent tight end\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GrahJi00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jimmy Graham<\/a><\/strong> has agreed to a two-year, $16 million contract with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bears\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chicago Bears<\/a>. Graham was released by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/packers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Green Bay Packers<\/a> on March 12 after spending the previous two seasons with the team. The 33-year old tight end will be entering his 11th NFL season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jimmy Graham to the Bears on a two-year, $16 million deal, including $9 million guaranteed, per source.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/1239698652412760064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 16, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Jimmy Graham Signs Deal With Chicago Bears<\/h2>\n<p>Once considered the best tight end in football, it is clear with Jimmy Graham that father time remains undefeated. In his two seasons with the Packers, Graham totaled just 1083 receiving yards on 93 receptions with five receiving touchdowns. After signed a three year, $30 million with the Packers prior to the 2018 season, Graham appeared in every game of both seasons for the team before being released.<\/p>\n<p>Before his time in Green Bay, Jimmy Graham lit up opposing offenses as a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/seahawks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/saints\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Orleans Saints<\/a>. Graham was a two-time Pro Bowler during his three year tenure in Seattle. He did his best work in New Orleans, when he was a three-time Pro Bowler and two-time AP all-pro in five seasons with the teams. Graham has been blessed to play with the likes of\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BreeDr00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drew Brees<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WilsRu00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Wilson<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RodgAa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Rodgers<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how big of a role Jimmy Graham will have on his new team. In 2018, he played 74% of Green Bay&#8217;s offensive snaps but that number was down to just 58% in 2019, the second lowest mark of his career. He isn&#8217;t the player he once was, but Graham can still contribute in a limited role. Not only can he still be a contributor in the passing game, but Graham can also help mentor the younger tight ends on the team. There&#8217;s gotta be plenty to learn from a five-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro. Whatever his role will be, Graham will be a valuable asset in some capacity to his new team in the 2020 season.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"Ay--2u1IQMxiVR8tKG8g7A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1200701041\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Ay--2u1IQMxiVR8tKG8g7A',sig:'JEL9JKYH2sqC3EpWiCzcYDAshtlVdHMKFbpfrIkhKeU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1200701041',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tight end Jimmy Graham saw his role decline in 2019 with the Packers, but he was still able to contribute to the team&#8217;s passing attack. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2781,"featured_media":82274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,23],"tags":[61,44,239,40,1608,246],"class_list":["post-82188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bears","tag-football","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-jimmy-graham","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-free-agency","tag-nfl-news"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}