Rate This Guy: Jimmy Graham

Today we take a look at Saints TE Jimmy Graham and develop an accurate Madden Rating for him. As always we rate a player's production looking at the most recent 3-year window with emphasis on the most recent year.



While we were hardly surprised, Graham's recent ascension into the Elite category (a 90 overall rating) gives us pause enough to examine it for ourselves. While former basketball players have certainly had a history of success transitioning to TE, and JG has certainly progressed this year, has he already reached elite status as a second-year player? Let's see what the numbers tell us.

Jimmy Graham's Stats

While he's certainly shown enough progression enough to warrant a higher rating, we're not seeing anything close to elite at this point. He's already exceeded his rookie numbers in every category except TDs six games into the season, but that's honestly to be expected with Colston missing time and Brees playing QB. What's NOT to be expected is that he'd do it in less than half a season--that's impressive. But as usual, Madden's ratings people jump the gun and rate a player too-high, too-fast. We've never seen a 90 rated TE who averaged less than 50 catches, 700 yards and atleast 4TDs, and Graham only meets one of those criteria. Those are elite TE numbers and while Graham's ceiling looks high, we're looking at a player who's gone from the low 70s to the high 70s. Not an Elite TE. Our rating at this point in the season? 79.