On March 10, 2015, the New Orleans Saints traded away tight end Jimmy Graham.

But Graham knew he would always be a Saint. "The moment I left," he said. "I knew I wouldn't fit in with certain offenses just because of the close-mindedness of that (tight end) position. I think some people have a misunderstanding of who they are as a player, or their talent. I knew exactly who I was and I knew that there were not many systems where I would be able to be that successful based on how I played, and based on how I was built. It's hard to find big guys who can run and catch."

Even before Graham returned to New Orleans in 2023 for a final season, he'd tried to work his way back to the franchise that made him a surprise third-round pick (No. 95 overall) in 2010.

"Me and (quarterback) Drew (Brees) were on the phone," said Graham, who will be honored as the team's "Legend of the Game" prior to Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. "I was trying to get back. I just wanted to get back in something I was so familiar with — where as a player, I had the ultimate freedom. That's not something that is very easy to find in the National Football League. I'm just not the traditional tight end who's going to be in three-point, the point-of-attack, blunt-force, and then you go out for play-action and you're wide open."

What Graham was — what gave opponents insomnia, fans chills and teammates slacked jaws — was a 6-foot-7, 265-pound combination of size, speed, agility and athleticism that possibly had never been seen before at his position, and helped make him the NFL's premier tight end during a four-year stretch in New Orleans.

Graham caught 719 passes for 8,545 yards and 89 touchdowns in stops with New Orleans (2010-14, '23), Seattle (2015-17), Green Bay (2018-19) and Chicago (2020-21). His best-in-the-business years came with the Saints from 2011-14, when he totaled 355 catches (89 per year) for 4,396 yards (1,099 per year) and 46 touchdowns (11.5 per year) in 63 games.

Six seasons as a Saint will earn inductions into the Saints Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor, and his 13-year career will lead to a Pro Football Hall of Fame nomination and, perhaps eventually, an HOF induction.

"I'm excited about it, because the Saints were the team that believed in me when nobody did," Graham said. "Later in my career I had a lot of people ask me, 'You were a first-round pick, right?' I was like, no. I was a third-round pick — which is still insane. I had 17 career catches in college. I played six months of football."

His own teammates were shocked he was there. "I remember (Saints tight end) David Thomas talking to me about it. And Drew and everybody, (receiver) Lance Moore, they were like, bro, when you came in, a lot of guys were mad. Especially on defense. They were like, why are we drafting a basketball player that knows nothing about football? We have a tight end, and we need more weapons on defense.

"So they were kind of pissed about the whole situation. And then I come in and I don't know what Cover-2, Cover-1, Cover-3 is. I don't know what a front is. I don't even know what the hashes mean. What are you talking about? I've never even heard of these things. I had to learn the rules of the game first."

But he had the incentive to learn.

He who laughs last

We already know the story. Graham was a scholarship basketball player at the University of Miami for four years before he made the jump into football. What none of us knew was why.

"My college basketball coach is the main reason I left college basketball," he said. "It's not because of my love and it's not because of my talent, it's because of how he was toward me"

Graham and his coach, Frank Haith, didn't mesh. Graham became a back-to-the-basket post player who was discouraged from his above-the-rim instincts, he said. The style was a poor fit, Graham sensed a lack of reciprocal respect and the relationship strained beyond repair.

"I went to his office and I told him, I think I might play football," Graham said. "And he starts chuckling in my face and he says, 'Jimmy, can you even catch?' And then the next thing that comes out of this guy's mouth is, 'Do you know that football is a man's sport? Grown men play that sport.' He said, 'You're going to go out there and embarrass yourself.'

"This is a guy that came to my trailer when I was in high school, in the middle-of-the-country 'hood, with no money and no heat, and he saw where I came from so he knew who I was. He was (still) one of many people who doubted what I would do."

Today, his detractors fade into the background. "My possibly going into the Ring of Honor...the fact that people care about that, the fact that it matters, says enough. I showed that if you give me an opportunity and you believe in me, I can set any goal and accomplish it. It's less about me and it's more about all those people that I proved wrong and all those people that I validated for taking a chance on some red-headed, mixed kid."

But he's not totally satisfied. Meat was left on the bone, and even in retirement, it weighs on Graham.

"I'm the type of individual, if I try something, I don't half-ass it," he said. "I think I've shown that with many things I've done in my life. If I'm in, I'm all in."

With big commitment comes big dreams. And with big dreams comes a different kind of reckoning.

"There's a lot of people in my life that say I should celebrate what I did while I played, and I should be proud of those things. And I did at times. But for me, my career is something that's very difficult to think about because of the goals I set for myself.

Making it to the NFL was only meant to be the beginning. "I think a lot of people get a situation, maybe they make the team and they're happy. I wasn't happy with that; that was just the beginning. I think, for myself, that was expected. It was like, 'Well, you put in the work so you're here. Let's get to work.' Let's prove and let's be this and let's go to Pro Bowls and let's score touchdowns, let's win games."

Graham did all of that, and then some (he went to five Pro Bowls, in fact. Three of them as a Saint). But it's hard for him to shake what he feels was left unfinished. "I fell short because, one, I never played in a Super Bowl, and I will forever live with that. And then, two, after my first year of starting, my new goal was to be the greatest to ever live. When you fall short and you're not No. 1 in touchdowns, No. 1 in catches, No. 1 in yards and you have no rings to show for your work, it's very disappointing at times when I really think about it."

Weird works

The Saints envisioned him possibly being a matchup advantage. Even the franchise might not have seen all he would become, how quickly he would become it and the hand it would force across the league.

"It doesn't matter how much I blocked, just from (playing like I did) in New Orleans, I was never going to go out on a route unguarded," he said. "I had defensive guys tell me, 'It's so funny when they try to do play-action with you. Because no matter if you late-leak and block first, the entire week our coach is telling us, I don't care what he does, don't lose sight of him. Make sure you stay between him and the goal posts. That is your man and when he leaves and takes one step outside of that line, you stick to him like glue because they're trying to play some game.'"

Even during his time in Green Bay, Chicago and Seattle—"where I was blocking my ass off," he said—Graham never quite fit the mold of a point-of-attack tight end. His reputation preceded him, and defenses were prepared for late-leak routes.

"I spent most of my career in the slot. I'm not going to be wide open on a late tight end leak. I've had every team try with me — I'm never open. They're standing waiting on me, because that's (the defender's) job."

Some numbers popped when he left: Ten- and eight-touchdown seasons with the Seahawks (2017) and Bears (2020), and a 900-yard receiving season with Seattle (2016). But nothing matched the production and feelings created as a Saint. "Since the moment I left, I understood that my love for this city and my love for the team... I was raised there and I kind of belonged back in that building, no matter what I did when I left."

"In the end, when you really get to look at your career and who you were as a player, I was a very weird player," Graham said. "Because these teams — I'd talk about it with coaching staffs, general managers, scouts — I'd get on a team and eventually I'm asking people, 'What am I doing here?' This place doesn't fit who I am. I was like, 'You guys told me you wanted to do something like this, and now we're doing the traditional bull----.'

"I'm grateful because I landed in the perfect spot. I had a team that believed in me and saw a vision for me on what I could possibly be, and we lived it for a little bit. I wish I got to live it for longer, because I think the moments that would have happened — that could have happened — would have been just absolutely beautiful. Not only for football itself, but really for that city and for the ownership.

"I think it would have been something kind of like what Travis (Kelce) has done in Kansas City. I try to tell young kids, especially if you're a weird player like me, if you've got a connection and you've got the offensive coordinator that believes in you and you've got the head coach — you've got to figure out how never to leave that place."

But if there's some reason — any reason — that you do, greatness can create a path that will lead you home.