Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett took to the airwaves on Thursday to shoot down whispers that he's seeking a trade out of Seattle. After defusing that controversy, though, he created another with his comments on new Seahawks tight end Jimmy Graham.
Bennett memorably called Graham soft and the most overrated player in the NFL after Seattle picked off New Orleans in the playoffs two seasons ago. On Thursday, he didn't back down from his hot take.
"I still feel the same way," Bennett told 710 ESPN Seattle, per The Seattle Times. "Just because he's on my team I don't stop feeling that way. 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."
Said Bennett: "Obviously we are a running team so he is 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 and we're pretty good and we battled with him a couple of times and I didn't really like that too much."
Bennett will need to work out his differences with Graham in a hurry after denying that he ever requested a trade to join his former coordinator and new Falcons coach Dan Quinn in Atlanta.
"I never asked for it," Bennett said. "I didn't come to them asking for a trade. I'm still trying to figure out how a guy from Dallas (the report originated with Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram) make up a story about me. I'm living in Seattle, I'm like, 'How does that happen?' I'm in Hawaii surfing, got the kids surfing in the ocean and they are talking about something else."
The whispers seem to have annoyed the free-speaking Bennett, who opined: "Man, like I said, they made rumors about Jesus, they'll make rumors about anybody."
The latest Around The NFL Podcast breaks down the latest moves and debates if Michael Bennett should change his tune on Jimmy Graham. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.
