The Packers are expecting to have tight end Jimmy Graham for at least another season, a source told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link). 
Rapoport writes that Graham is “due a $5M roster bonus on 3/15, and the expectation now is they pay it and he returns.” Green Bay signed Graham to a three-year $30MM deal back in March, but his first season with Aaron Rodgers was a bit of a disappointment. Graham ended up playing in all 16 games, but he was hampered by a broken thumb the last couple months of the season.
Graham ended up catching 55 passes for 636 yards and two touchdowns. He came to Green Bay after spending three years in Seattle, and hasn’t quite been able to replicate his early career success in New Orleans in either stop. There was speculation the Packers might move on this offseason, but paying him the $5MM roster bonus indicates they still believe he can produce at a high level.
Recently fired coach Mike McCarthy caught a lot of flack for not getting Graham more involved, and it’s possible he could see a late career resurgence under new coach Matt LaFleur. The two touchdowns were the lowest of any healthy season of his career, and the 55 catches the lowest since his rookie season.
Talk about a system player probably doesn’t help that Rodgers is notorious for not passing to TEs
Rodgers hasn’t had many good TE’s to throw to over his career. Finley was good for a couple years before his injury an Jared Cook was there for a year. Other than that, it’s been pretty bad. I’m sure he would throw plenty to Kelce or Ertz if he had those types of options
I think part of it as well is that McCarthy was horrible at least the last few years.
Doesn’t throw to TE”s? In 2011 Finnley alone had 90+ targets and another 87 in 2012. When Rodgers has a good TE he’ll get the ball to him
I feel like the guy still has something left. He isn’t what he once was but the fact that the Packers has a down year all the way around, he has a broken thumb the last month and a half or two months of the season and he still had over 600 yards tells you that he wasn’t as bad as it seems. He could and should have better numbers with a new coach getting him more involved. I believe he did a decent job getting TE’s involved in his previous places of employment and know he has a TE who is a big body and has food hands like Graham I think he will try to get him more involved. Make or break year for him, if he just doesn’t have it and fails to find a connection with Rodgers who doesn’t seem to throw to TE’s as much as other QB’s do then he’s gone after this season for sure but I do think he will have a pretty good year. I know I’ll be drafting him in fantasy as my back up TE incase he does have a good year lol. I’m more curious to see ho Rodgers does with a new coach, a new system and a just a fresh new start. You hear he’s kind of a prick and hard to coach so it could be bad or it could end up being great and Rodgers could have a career year or career years under LaFleur.
The prospect of spending countless sleepless nights worrying over who you would choose as your fantasy backup TE was almost more than we could bear. Thank you so much for that heads up.
News flash…over 95% of all professional athletes are genetically “kind of a prick”. They have to be.
In his prime he was a bad blocker and teams couldn’t keep him in when running.
Now that he is no longer a top level receiver he hurts teams more than he helps