SEATTLE — Minutes after he made perhaps his biggest and most impressive catch as a Seattle Seahawk, tight end Jimmy Graham suffered a season-ending knee injury in Seattle’s 39-30 NFL victory over Pittsburgh on Sunday at CenturyLink Field.
“I will tell you that Jimmy did hurt his patellar tendon today, and they tell me already that he’s going to have to have surgery on that,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said. “We’re going to miss the heck out of him the rest of the season.
“He’s been a fantastic addition to us, and you saw him again today doing stuff, and he was going to have a huge day today if he was able to stay out there,” Carroll said. “That’s unfortunate.”
Graham was injured early in the fourth quarter when he went up for a deep ball in the end zone with Pittsburgh cornerback Antwon Blake. He landed awkwardly and immediately grabbed his right knee.
Graham’s leg was placed in a splint, and he left the playing field on the back of a cart.
“To lose him really hurts,” Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson said. “He’s such a great teammate. He’s a phenomenal football player, but an even better person. We just have to be there for him in that way.”
Moments before the injury, Graham set up a touchdown with an acrobatic catch on another long pass from Wilson. Racing down the left sideline, Graham went up high over Steelers safety Mike Mitchell to get his hands on the ball, bobbled it twice and finally secured it an instant before hitting the ground.
The 36-yard gain put the ball at the Pittsburgh 1-yard line, and running back Thomas Rawls scored a touchdown on the next play to bring Seattle back to one point behind at 21-20 late in the third quarter.
Graham came to Seattle in a trade with New Orleans for standout center Max Unger.He was seen as an answer to Seattle’s lack of touchdown-scoring punch, and he was becoming an important part of Seattle’s offense.
He will finish this season with 48 receptions for 605 yards and two touchdowns. The receptions are yards are second on the team behind wide receiver Doug Baldwin.
“He was having an unbelievable game with some great plays,” fellow tight end Luke Willson said of Graham. “Everybody loves him. Great guy in the locker room, and an extremely hard worker. A guy with his type of talent, to see him work as hard as he does, it’s pretty cool.
“You never want to see that happen to anyone in the NFL, let alone a guy like Jimmy.”
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