Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett appeared on 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Justin and Gee” show on Thursday to address the trade rumors that he reportedly made to the team last month.
Bennett denied the rumors, but it turns out that he actually had something more interesting to say later in the interview. When asked about the Seahawks’ biggest acquisition this offseason, tight end Jimmy Graham, Bennett said he hasn’t changed his view of the former New Orleans Saints rival.
See, Bennett and Graham have some history, with Bennett calling Graham “soft” and “overrated” and saying that he didn’t like Graham “as a person or as a player.”
The fact that they are not teammates apparently has not changed much in Bennett’s mind.
"I still feel the same way. I mean, just because he's on my team I don't stop feeling that way," Bennett said.
Guess Bennett won’t be taking Graham around to his favorite oyster spots in town anytime soon.
The outspoken Bennett did say he’d try to soften his stance a bit because the two players would be sharing a locker room this season.
"Obviously, I'm going to be a better teammate to him because he's on my team. I can't do the things I was doing to him when we were playing him," Bennett said. "When he comes to our team, he's a part of our team. We have a different philosophy than they have with the Saints so the things that he was expected to do [with] the Saints are going to be different when he comes here. Obviously, we're a running team, so he's going to have to block and do all those things.
"I don't feel as harsh as I did at the time because he's my teammate now, but at the time he was on the opposite team, a team that we played that was pretty good and we battled with them a couple times, and I didn't really like that team."
Bennett and Graham are going to have to make it work, and though the fact they won't be sharing a huddle or a meeting room all that often will help keep a little distance between them, there's no doubt that they'll be locking horns at some point on the field during training camp practices.
And that's where the genesis of Bennett's overrated talk — that Graham isn't a great blocker for the position — might be proven or disproven. Head coach Pete Carroll likes to ride the razor's edge with his team, and it mostly has worked so far.
Right now, you'd have to think the majority of the Seahawks are on Bennett's side until further notice. Other teammates, including Bruce Irvin, have spoken out about Graham in the past, so the new tight end will have to do his best to endear himself to his fellow players there.
This will be a small but interesting test to his chemistry experiment in Seattle. Is there enough room in the petri dish for both players? The Seahawks are counting on it, having traded their starting center and first-round pick to land Graham, and Bennett apparently has no interest in being traded.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
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