Graham further along than Gates when he came to NFL

Swilling56 said
From all accounts I have read, it seems like shockey is taking Graham under his wing as his protege. Shockey knows his time is coming to and end, and here is a young extremely talented guy who played at his Alma mater (and almni from the U have serious pride in that) and at his position and said he looked up to him. I seriously doubt shockey feels at all disappointed about the situation, especially how he's provento be such a team player. He came to Nola, loved his qb, embraced the city, was embraced back by the fans, played a big role in our championship run, scored a td in the superbowl, and has a ring he is proud of. He got EVERYTHING he wanted coming here, and now has someone to tutor and mold. For all these reasons, I believe shockey is happy for Graham and has no regrets about his time here.

yes , it seems like on this forum it sometimes has to be this player or that player, can't be both. Shockey still has something left in the tank and we need him to mentor Graham along. While everyone thinks Graham has everything down, he still doesn't have blocking down, and Shockey is one of the best blocking tight ends in the league when healthy. This is what made him so valuable since he also had great receiving skills to go along with that. Also the reason why he was unhappy in NY, they wanted to utilize his blocking skills more. I love Graham's receiving skills so far, but hope Shockey molds him into a all purpose tight end like he was, maybe he can tell him to learn from his mistakes and go down sometimes.

I think Shockey is happy about the situation, knows he only has a few years left, if that. He seems content and comfortable with the situation, otherwise he would be playing through the injuries he has been having, and probably wouldn't have missed the games he did this season. We could have one of the best tight end tandems in the league. David Thomas is very underrated, and hasn't been used to his fullest potential when it comes to receiving because of his blocking skills. Last year he was split out wide more and utilized as a receiver, this year its more blocking than last and releasing to the flat as a safety valve. It would be nice to have two tight ends that can block just as well as receive.