RENTON, Wash. -- Russell Wilson meant it in the best way possible when, in response to a question about Jimmy Graham's status as a pending free agent, likened his teammate to a mythical creature.

"Jimmy's one of my best friends in the world," Wilson said Monday, a day after the Seattle Seahawks' season ended earlier than expected. "He's like a unicorn. There's only so many of those guys you can find that can do what he can do. He's pretty special at catching the football and making plays."

Graham, Seattle's Pro Bowl tight end, is indeed a rare talent. He's also 31 years old, potentially in line to command another large payday and coming off an odd season in which he caught a lot of touchdown passes but otherwise produced inconsistently.

In other words: Graham's situation is complicated.

He's one of 16 Seahawks who are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents now that he has reached the end of the contract Seattle inherited when the team acquired him in a 2015 trade from New Orleans.

There was a time this season when it looked as if Graham could be playing his way toward a new deal with Seattle. He was catching touchdowns every week, having finally emerged as the red zone threat the Seahawks thought he would be. All 10 of his touchdowns came after Week 4 and most of them came near the goal line. Graham would get a one-on-one matchup and use his 6-foot-7, 265-pound frame to box out a much smaller defensive back.

His 10 TDs ranked first among NFL tight ends and tied for second among all pass-catchers. It was also two more than what Graham totaled in his first two seasons with the Seahawks combined.

"We were forcing teams to have to double him down there and if they don't double him, we're going to be able to get it to him," coach Pete Carroll said. "That's what we had pictured it to be; it just took a while and both of those guys hooked up and it was really the coming-together conceptually and through the hard work that really paid off eventually. He was just as forcible as anyone in the NFL down there."

But while Graham's production in the red zone spiked in 2017, his production elsewhere on the field dipped.

His 57 receptions and especially his 520 yards represented drop-offs from last season, when he caught 65 passes for 923 yards. Graham topped 60 yards only twice this season and had one three-game stretch in December when he caught two passes for two yards and a touchdown, all but disappearing from Seattle's offense save for the score in Seattle's Christmas Eve win over Dallas. The Seahawks went 1-2 in those three games, with their offense failing to produce 150 yards in the Dallas win and a blowout loss to the Rams.

Graham also finished the season with seven drops, tied for second most in the NFL behind the eight of Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas.

"He did have a stretch there and his stretch and Russell's stretch was kind of the same," Carroll said. "Offensively, our stretch was kind of the same where we were not on it there for two or three weeks in a row. We won the Dallas game without a whole lot of offense that day. We were efficient and scored and did some things, but we just kind of got in a funk there with what was going on."

Graham has spoken with reporters on rare occasions over his three seasons in Seattle, making it difficult to gauge how he'll approach free agency. What is known: he loves Carroll and is very close to Wilson, which should count for something.

But it's only logical that Graham would want to test free agency before accepting any offer from Seattle. Recall that the Saints used the franchise tag on Graham after his rookie contract expired, thereby keeping him from becoming a free agent, then signed him to the extension that he just completed. He never has been able to see what he could be worth on the open market and would presumably like to in what could be his last real chance.

"We've talked to him," Carroll said. "We love Jimmy and we would love for him to be with us."

As always, there's a limit to how much Seattle will be willing and/or able to pay to get that done. Graham's previous deal was worth $40 million over four years, though he made $13 million from the Saints in the first year, meaning it was a three-year, $27 million deal that Seattle took on.

It's hard to imagine Seattle giving Graham a raise from the $9 million he made on average from the Seahawks, which is what it might take. They have other key free agents (Sheldon Richardson, Paul Richardson and Bradley McDougald, to name a few) and other needs, particularly along a defense that might need to replace some aging and/or injured starters.

Plus, the Seahawks just got two difficult reminders about the dangers of shelling out lucrative third contracts to players near or over 30. Seattle gave extensions last offseason to strong safety Kam Chancellor and defensive lineman Michael Bennett. Chancellor suffered a career-threatening neck injury, and Bennett dealt with foot and knee injuries that seemed to affect his play. He might be a salary-cap casualty.

Graham has a severe knee injury in his recent past, missing the end of the 2015 season because of a torn patellar tendon. He remarkably made it back by the start of the next season and had a productive year, but his knee has required constant maintenance since the injury, including routine days off from practice.

"He's a great teammate, he's a great guy," Wilson said. "So hopefully he can continue to be a Seahawk. I would love to continue his career here with him and do that with him. There's a lot of other guys too I would like to do that with too as well."

Wilson spoke as the Seahawks cleaned out their lockers on Monday. A few minutes earlier, Graham was walking into the locker room then stopped in his tracks, with an astounded look on his face, when he realized it was full of reporters.

He then walked out of sight. Perhaps for good.