Jimmy Graham trade: John Schneider talks about the timeline, rationale in blockbuster move

Link: John Schneider: Deal for tight end Jimmy Graham was one we had to make

Seahawks general manager joined Alex Flanagan on the NFL Network this afternoon to discuss the trade for Jimmy Graham - the timeline, the rationale, and the result.

On how things developed:

"Well, we have a great relationship with the Saints - Sean Payton, Micki Loomis, and we've been talking with them for several days. It's hard, you know, this business, when you're talking about moving somebody of the caliber of Max Unger, but we're always talking about "no finish line" here, and we're trying to get better every single day, and this opportunity presented itself, and it was the type of deal we could make in order for us to keep moving forward as an organization.

"All throughout the weekend, you're constantly talking to a ton of people, and all those guys, we have good relationships with their agents, so, we had a good feel for where people were going to fall in line, so we just continued to talk to the Saints — they had a lot going on as well — we did at several different positions, so I think that last night and this morning, things really intensified."

What does Graham bring?

"I think just his size, and him in the redzone. He's scored 46 touchdowns since 2011, and I think besides Marshawn and Dez Bryant, those are the top three guys. We look at Cooper Helfet, Anthony McCoy, and Luke Willson, that's a doggone good group right there."

Going forward

"We feel like we have a lot to do. WE don't really ever stop. Obviously losing Max is something that we'll address, but you know, Patrick Lewis stepped in and did a great job for us, really did some nice things, so. We've got some guys on our practice squad that we're really excited about, then you know, there's guys obviously in the draft, some cap casualty guys you'll see. So, I think there's a lot of ways that we can address things."