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Seemingly set at the tight end position, the Titans released veteran Daniel Graham on Tuesday before their latest OTA.

The Titans liked the 10-year veteran's run blocking ability when they signed him last year. Graham wound up catching two passes for 25 yards on the season, including the winning touchdown against his former team in a 17-14 Week 3 victory over the Denver Broncos at LP Field.

The Titans have solid depth at the position with veterans Craig Stevens and Jared Cook established atop the depth chart. In addition, the team selected tight end in Taylor Thompson in the fifth round of April's NFL Draft, return second-year pro Cameron Graham and signed Brandon Barden as a free agent.

Munchak said they wanted to give the veteran Graham a chance to move on to another team.

“We got to that point where it seemed like it was in the best interest of Daniel and the best interest of the team to kind of give him the opportunity to move on for what we need to do as an offense going forward and for Daniel knowing the chance for him getting a lot of reps was going to be limited,” Munchak said. “… We loved his time here and I wish it could have gone on a little differently. He has obviously had a very good career and I’m sure he can go on and play and help someone still this year.”

Munchak called Graham a great teammate who led by example.

"He was great in the tight end room and really for the whole team, I thought,” Munchak said. “Unfortunately, as we all know the way the season went we didn’t run the ball as much as we liked to and he didn’t get the reps he thought he would be able to get originally because obviously we thought we would run the ball much more often than we did last year...he didn’t get an opportunity to play like we hoped he would when we signed him.”

Prior to joining the Titans, Graham spent the previous four seasons (2007-10) as a team captain with the Broncos. Graham started his career in New England, where he helped the Patriots to victories in Super Bowl XXXVIII (2003 season) and Super Bowl XXXIX (2004 season).

Signing a blocking TE like Daniel Graham would require this team to not be complacent. The reality is that it remains a question of how much Graham has left in the tank. But you can only answer that question by kicking the tires, something the Falcons won't do until the end of August at the earliest.

The Falcons will sign a TE at the end of camp, and it's going to be interesting to see if that player is better than anybody they could sign at this point (Shockey, Graham, Shiancoe).

The Falcons depth at WR and TE is atrocious.

Didn't know he was a FA, why not grab him? Wasn't it just like two years ago he was playing fairly well. Only question is why didn't the Vikes stick with him, as opposed to drafting Rudolph so high.

Indeed.

No notion of having 4's and 5's developing, currently being used, and being threats to 2's and 3's. No notion of 2TE sets, experience, and sliding over to take over for TG when he leaves.

Yep, if either Jones, Roddy, or Gonzo go down for a game or two, the Falcons will essentially be playing 10 on 11 in passing situations.

You lose Jones, and you lose the only explosive player on your offense. White, Douglas, and Gonzo will make big plays on occasion, but teams don't fear the big play from them. So you don't affect how they cover you. Jones is the only receiver on this roster that can potentially dictate coverage.

You lose White, and it isolates Jones and it means teams can slide their coverage to stop him and his potential big plays, and not really have to worry too much about putting Gonzo and Douglas on islands because they aren't the types of guys that are going to consistently make you pay in terms of generating big plays.

You lose Gonzo, and Michael Palmer enters the lineup, and you have a TE that can't consistently/reliably beat man coverage. So teams can slide their coverages over to Jones and White, blanket them and potentially once again take the big play away from our offense.

This is why takeitdown, myself, and others have been so adamant about getting at least one other WR or TE that can reliably beat man coverage. Ideally, it would be a guy on his own that can generate big plays (e.g. Braylon Edwards) because if/when Jones goes down, you'll still have that vertical presence on the outside and the offense relatively speaking doesn't skip a beat.

But you should at least be willing to settle for a WR like Chad Ochocinco or TE like Jeremy Shockey, that you can get open from time to time, so that if/when opposing teams blanket your coverage, Matt Ryan at least has a reliable target to throw to so that while you may no longer have the 20-yard gain, at least you still can get a 12-yard gain.


My expectation is that at the end of camp the Falcons will sign a blocking TE that has some sort of value as a receiver (like a Daniel Graham) and/or also sign a 4th WR that has some sort of value as a kickoff returner (like a Roscoe Parrish) to bolster depth. But it probably won't be enough to really offset the weak depth at those respective positions. And it makes no sense why this great GM of ours refuses to acknowledge said weakness now. There's always talent to be had at the end of camp cuts, but if you sign that player then as opposed to now, you have effectively scrubbed that guy from being an effective piece in your scheme for the first month of the season, unless it's a guy that knows your scheme (e.g. Brian Williams). At least if you sign the guy now, he bolsters competition in camp, and if he does prove to be a capable player then you have an option starting Week 1.


As for Shiancoe, he's unsigned because he's a subpar blocker and has stone hands. He's dropped 20 passes over the past 4 years according to ProFootballFocus.com, with a drop rate of about 6.8%. Just to give you some perspective, last year where Roddy had his case of the dropsies, he had a drop rate of 7.9%. So what Shiancoe has averaged over the years is close to what Roddy is at his worst.

Gotcha, I just figured we've waited on opts that are at the bottom of the barrel anyway... Meanwhile I just read yesterday how excited Cincy is over drafting Charles, which coupled with Greshem gives them what all the smarter teams are doing to copy the Pats, Niners, Ravens, Colts, etc.

I think the Falcons will eventually adopt that sort of offense with the 2 TEs but probably not until 2013 or 2014.

Or, you sign the guy now and with his extra 'month' Ochostinko injures himself, and now your stuck. Maybe TD has been burnt by the preseason injury bug a couple times and figures it makes more sense to wait to the last minute and see who is healthy and that is a better idea?

Why would you be stuck? You'd still be able to sign someone at the end of camp. The player you sign today is not going to make significantly more than the player you would sign at the end of August/beginning of September, so the ramifications of cutting that player at the end of camp are relatively nothing.

It's a risk/reward system. You get no reward for sitting on your hands, or at least the odds of a reward are extremely low, because your average undrafted WR has a less than 1% chance of being a productive rookie WR (Doug Baldwins are extremely rare).

However, the odds that a proven veteran player can come in and be productive are immensely higher (let's say 20%), with almost zero risk. If that player "busts" and just winds up getting cut, you're in the same exact position you would have been had you gone with Plan A and stood pat.


Perhaps, but how often in life is procrastination a better strategy? Everything involved in personnel evaluation is essentially gambling because you never truly know if a player is going to develop and produce, and you never know when the injury bug is going to hit.

A smart GM (or gambler) is going to know how to minimize risk and maximize reward. And this is something that TD has routinely NOT DONE in recent off-seasons, and the majority of the time they have blown up in his face, yet he rarely ever gets called upon it.

How the Falcons have handled their nickel cornerback situation is Prime Example #1. Now, he seemingly has solved the problem with the Asante Samuel trade, but it took him basically 3 years before he made the right decision and secured a veteran ahead of time.

The other example is how poorly the Falcons have developed their practice squad talent. Eric Weems and Vance Walker are the only players to begin the year on the team's 8-man p-squad and actually garner significant PT with the team. Of the 32 players that have started the year on the 8-man p-squad over the past 4 years, they have combined to appear in 112 games and 10 starts between them. If you remove Weems and Walker from that equation, it would be 21 games and 2 starts among 30 guys. So for 94% of our practice squad players, they are going to average a grand total of 0.7 games played between them.

It's not to say that Cone, Pearcy, Calvin, etc. might not turn into good players. But given this team's history of developing these young guys, why should we expect more from them than we got out of players like Doug Beaumont, Aaron Kelly, Brandyn Harvey, Tim Buckley, or Andy Strickland?

Again, if you're gambling, explain to me why is that a smarter strategy than signing a veteran, even someone as crappy as Hines Ward, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, or Kassim Osgood?

my diet starts tommorrow

Well, that's one instance.