Saints' Jimmy Graham ready to prove himself after year off - ESPN

METAIRIE, La. — New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham said he was ready to go home again.

Graham put on a Saints jersey for the first time since the 2014 season this week, returning to New Orleans after an eight-year absence. Graham said it was emotional for him to return to the organization that drafted him in 2010 and traded him to the Seattle Seahawks during the 2015 offseason.

Graham and the Saints had multiple conversations over the years about bringing him back, talking as recently as last season. But when nothing happened, Graham sat out the season instead of signing a deal elsewhere.

«I had a couple of teams that were reaching out, all teams that made the playoffs,» Graham said Saturday. «I just couldn't see myself wearing another jersey again. I just wanted, hopefully, if there was ever another opportunity to come back home, to make it happen. It did, and I'm here now.

»… I talked to [my agent] Jimmy Sexton and just made it clear if I don't retire as a Saint, then I wasn't going to play again."

The 36-year-old returns to the Saints as a different player than the one who left. Graham was a two-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler who had 51 touchdowns during his five seasons in New Orleans, but he hasn't had the same level of success during recent stints with the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears.

Now he's competing with a group of younger players who grew up watching him play. Tight end Foster Moreau, 26, was in high school when he watched Graham catch two touchdowns in a 2011 playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, and later would have his autographed jersey hanging on his wall.

«Jimmy was a dog. And he still is, honestly. He runs great,» Moreau said. «It's such a fun situation walking in the locker