Jimmy Graham at Pro Day: ‘I am a physical player’

As a basketball player at UM, Graham was seen as too physical. During his four-year career, Graham’s personal fouls (286) easily exceeded his field goals made (202).

But as a football player, Graham is hearing that he’s not tough enough. NFL draft analysts like Todd McShay have virtually called the 6-foot-8, 260-pound tight end a softie.

“That’s just something I have to deal with,” Graham said on Friday after completing his audition at UM’s Pro Day at Greentree Practice Fields. “I remember coming in here last August and people saying, ‘Let’s see what this basketball player can do.’ I know I’m going to be tagged as a basketball player for another couple of months. But I think after camp and after a couple of games I’ll be able to show people I’m a football player.”

Graham certainly looked like a football player during his one season in helmet and shoulder pads. Despite not having played the game since he was a freshman in high school, Graham caught 17 passes for 213 yards and finished second on the Hurricanes with 5 touchdown catches.
But in the world of the NFL draft, every prospect has to have a blemish. The knock on Graham regards whether he will be physically willing enough to block in the NFL.

Asked where he picked up that rap, Graham said: “I’m not really sure. I know when teams look at what I’ve been through in my life, what I’ve been through in college and high school, that I’ve had to be tough and I’ve had to be on my own and [kept] pushing forward, when they see and know those things, they won’t have any question about it.”

Graham said that he addressed concerns about his desire to block at the Senior Bowl, where he showed “that I am a physical player and that I do have the ability to block and I want to block.”

There are surely no questions regarding Graham’s physical ability. His numbers were arguably the best among tight ends at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

Graham decided not to run the 40-yard dash on Friday, choosing to rest on the 4.5 that he clocked in Indy.

“I already ran 4.5 at the combine under pretty stressful situations,” said Graham, who shares the same agent (Jimmy Sexton) with Florida’s Tim Tebow. “I think people know I’m fast…I didn’t need to run it again. I was told not to run it again.”

Graham is a good bet to be the first Hurricane taken in April’s draft. Analysts have Graham going anywhere from the second to fourth rounds.
“I hear a lot of different things,” Graham said. “I don’t know. I’m just going to hope for the best. For me, it’s not about where I go, it’s that I go. I know there’s a lot of work ahead of me. I’m just waiting to get into a camp and show people what I can do.”

Graham said it was former UM quarterback Bernie Kosar who pushed him into giving football a try. “I worked with him all last summer,” Graham said. “He drove down three days a week to throw to me. He’s still got a cannon. He was the one that kept pushing me and telling me, ‘Jimmy, I think one day you can be a playmaker in the NFL.’”

Graham said he prepared for Friday’s workout by watching film of former UM tight end Jeremy Shockey going through his Pro Day in 2002.



(palmbeachpost.com)