Saints' Jimmy Graham in rarefied air among tight ends

Lindsay H. Jones | USA TODAY Sports

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METAIRIE, La. — When the ringing in his ears from the Superdome crowd finally subsides on a Victory Monday, Jimmy Graham slides on a headset, straps himself into the pilot seat of his fixed-wing, single-engine airplane, and steers to the runway.

As Graham takes off, he gets the feeling he's been craving — the only one that can match the rush of scoring a touchdown and slam-dunking the ball over the Superdome crossbar.

"It's like Sunday," the New Orleans Saints tight end said, grinning, as he tried to explain his love of flying. "I put everything I have into every Sunday, and it's exhausting. After flying, after doing aerobatics or something, I get that same enjoyment, that same rush."

The NFL's most dominant tight end, it turns out, is quite the adrenaline junkie. If Graham has a day off, he's spending it in the sky.

He'll cruise over downtown New Orleans, dipping low for a fly-by of the Superdome. Then he'll turn the plane south over the desolate marshes that spill into the Gulf of Mexico. Graham already has piloted cross-county, from South Florida to Colorado, and is planning his first international flight, to somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, for the next offseason.

When his NFL career is over, Graham wants to race airplanes and teach aerobatics.

But as much he chases the thrill of flying upside down or performing his favorite trick, the stall spin, under the supervision of a flight instructor, Graham mostly craves the peace that comes with a solo flight.

"I fly a lot for the relaxation of it. Just being in control, no cellphones, no cameras. It's just you and the plane and the clouds," Graham told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday.

His coaches aren't nuts about his hobby, Graham said, but he repeatedly assures Saints coach Sean Payton about all of his certifications, all of the hours he logged at a Miami flight school. If Graham insists his time in the sky is an important piece of his performance on the football field, it's an argument he's going win.

No skill-position player has been as good as Graham through five weeks this season. After catching 10 passes from Drew Brees in last weekend's win at the Chicago Bears, Graham leads all NFL players, not just tight ends, in receiving yards with 593 and is tied for second with six touchdowns.

"He has no weakness in his game," said Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe, a CBS analyst. "You could just line him up on the line of scrimmage, but then you allow people to beat him up. By moving him around, and putting him in a stack formation, with three receivers so you can't press him — that was impressive. And now I see the ascension that he's made and how he's taken his game to a whole different level, it's unbelievable. I'm thoroughly impressed, and it takes a lot to impress me."

Graham is drawing double teams and aggressive coverage yet has proved to be unstoppable, with two 10-catch games in five weeks and a four-game streak of at least 100 receiving yards. For every defensive adjustment made against him, the Saints have found a new way to spring him. And even if he's covered by two defenders, Graham is often Brees' primary target.

"There are a lot of throws where he'll tell me, 'If you have two guys on you, I still think you're open, and I'm going to throw it where you can catch it,'" Graham said. "When you have a quarterback that has that much belief in you, you're very blessed."

It wasn't always that easy for them. Graham said his timing wth Brees was off early last season because they missed practice together in the offseason while Brees held out during contract negotiations. The previous offseason, they didn't get to work much together because of the lockout, and a year before that, Graham was a rookie, still trying to learn the basics of NFL football.

Graham played one year of high school football — as a freshman — and one year of football at Miami (Fla.) after playing four years of basketball for the Hurricanes. His former basketball coach, Frank Haith, is convinced Graham would have made an NBA roster (Graham had offers to play professionally in Europe), but said Graham obviously made the right choice.

"Jimmy is one of my all-time favorite kids I've ever coached, not just because he was a really good player, so I take any chance I can to brag about Jimmy," Haith said. "I use Jimmy as an example a lot — talk about a young man persevering, overcoming a lot and just how he attacked life."

Saints tight end coach Terry Malone laughed when asked how much of a novice Graham was when the Saints drafted him, based on potential, in the third round in 2010.

"At this level, you would think guys would have a certain football intelligence and competence, but Jimmy did not," Malone said. "That's the only thing he lacked. He had the enthusiasm, the work ethic, the physical ability. He just needed to learn how to play football."

Graham attached himself to the Saints' veteran tight end, David Thomas, who patiently explained the intricate elements of the team's passing game and NFL defenses.

The breakthrough came in 2011, when Graham had 99 catches for 1,310 yards, 17 yards behind the New England Patriots' Rob Gronkowski for the single-season record for tight ends. Gronkowski, a first-round pick in the 2010 draft, is expected to make his 2013 debut Sunday against the Saints.

If Gronkowski can return to form, the debate over who's the NFL's best tight end can resume, though Graham said he isn't sure how the argument would be solved. Catches? Yards? Touchdowns?

Perhaps dollars. Graham is in the final year of his rookie contract and poised to score a deal that should exceed the six-year, $53 million pact Gronkowski signed last year. Sharpe says Graham should be the first tight end to get $10 million a year.

For now, Graham isn't concerned with contracts. As long as checks from the rookie deal keep arriving, he'll be happy. Well, that and if the Saints keep winning.

Because with each win comes a Monday among the clouds.

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