Since the Seattle Seahawks don't appear to want to fork over tight end Jimmy Graham's asking price according to recent reports, they do have some other tight end free agent options and perhaps the most intriguing of those options would be Cincinnati Bengals free agent tight end Tyler Eifert.

At least kicking the tires around on bringing in Eifert is a no brainer but pulling the trigger on the move will take some investigation and courage, especially considering their 2017 free agent failings. Here's the rub.

When healthy, Eifert is an elite tight end. At 6-6, 255-pounds, the former first round pick was drawing Rob Gronkowski comparisons when he first arrived out of Notre Dame in 2013. After a dislocated elbow in 2014 cut his season 15 games short, he was nearly neck-for-neck with Gronk in 2015 as he tried to lay claim to the "most complete tight end in the game" moniker, but even that season -- that saw him post 13 touchdowns and 615 yards -- was slowed by injury due to a concussion that cost him three games. Next, an ankle injury suffered in the 2016 Pro Bowl led to surgery and took away time. During 2016 and 2017, a back injury and most recently back surgery ended his season short. Eifert's only appeared in 10 out 32 games over the last two seasons. That's the rub.

The reason a tight end who once laid claim to near-Gronk status is even available is his long, treacherous injury history but what a bargain he could be. Instead of paying Graham $10 million or franchise tagging him and paying him around $15 million (never an option), what if you could have Eifert for $4 million or even less on a one-year prove-it deal.

Cant see Moncrief being worth more than $3M a year. Hes a three at best. Eifert likely has to take a 1 year deal maybe in the $4M range. Always hurt. https://t.co/SXWjhUNM5B — Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) January 20, 2018

It allows you to shift that $6 million or more savings elsewhere like towards paying a All-Pro left guard named Andrew Norwell or keeping Paul Richardson or whatever. If healthy, you still have your redzone monster who actually blocks better historically. He's no Gronk but he's proven more willing and adept than Graham at the task. If he's not healthy, you're actually in position to not feel the effects as much. Even if Luke Willson were to walk with Graham, you have Nick Vannett and Tyrone Swoopes who've both flashed receiving abilities and could be better blockers than Graham but the cap savings might afford you the chance to bring back Willson who's an adept blocker and receiver but not as explosive as Graham.

Perhaps, you use some of that money to find a redzone threat or at the very least a bigger wide receiver like Terrell Pryor. The draft is also available to fill the void.

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Make no mistake about it, Eifert's a tremendous risk. Whatever your feelings towards Graham, he scored 10 redzone touchdowns for an offense that already was struggling to put up points and had redzone issues in 2016. Replacing those easy scores is no small matter and if Eifert can't do that, it would be a problem.

But the upside and cap savings make it a risk worth contemplating and maybe even taking with contingency plans to hedge your bets.

On the other hand, the Seahawks may still be smarting from picking up two injury-risk players who didn't exactly pan out in 2016. They took chances on left guard Luke Joeckel and running back Eddie Lacy and while Joeckel was serviceable, his knee injury flared up again and caused him to miss five games. Meanwhile, Lacy was an abject failure of a decision who simply didn't fit in Seattle especially behind a line that had trouble run blocking.

Attempting to exploit the market and find elite talent with limited funds is more art than science and more luck than skill, Eifert presents a rare chance for the Seahawks that even Lacy and Joeckel didn't present. He has proven elite talent when healthy and "most complete tight end in the game" upside, meaning blocking and receiving abilities.

The millions and millions (The Rock voice) dollar question will be coming off multiple surgeries can he ever be that again -- a report from October by ESPN's Katherine Terrell suggests he can without long-term worries -- but if that's not true or too murky to assess can the Seahawks put a roster together that hedges their bets if he can't? The at least know he's been cleared by doctors for OTA's.

If the answer to either question is yes, this cap-saving measure makes too much sense not to try. Unfortunately, the answer likely won't be nearly that simple, which makes this decision much tougher and potentially season-shifting.

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