Saints TE Jimmy Graham has been dealing with a bad wrist all season - and that may explain his drops. (US Presswire)

Saints TE Jimmy Graham is tied with the Patriots’ Wes Wellker for the most drops in the NFL this season with 10 according to ESPN research. On Friday, he and interim coach Joe Vitt provided a potential reason for that high number.

Although never on the injury report, Graham has been dealing with a bad wrist since the preseason. He won’t specify which, but he said he had been wearing a brace to protect it all year. Game photos indicate the brace has been on his left hand.

“It’s pretty painful,” he said. “Catches and blocking have been painful this year, but that’s everybody. Everybody on this team has had some issues and is having some issues. I can’t use that as a crutch. I’m out there on Sundays and I have to produce.”

Graham said he used a tape job on his other wrist to hide the problem and prevent opponents from swiping at the hurt wrist. He will look at MRIs after the season before deciding whether to have surgery.

“In the end I’ve got to catch the ball,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what I’m wearing or it doesn’t matter the pain that I have. I still have to be out there and I still have to catch it. It’s been on me.”

Graham, coming off a 99-catch, 1,310-yard, 11-TD season, has fallen off that pace this year. He has 64 catches for 710 yards in 12 games, having missed the Tampa Bay game with a sprained ankle that slowed him down for a few weeks.

His yardage total last year was second all-time for a TE to the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski, who had 1,327 yards in 2011. He said it was not only the wrist that has hampered his production. Opponents are paying more attention to him, too.

“I get jammed at the line a lot by defensive ends,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest difference. Teams will take a pass rusher and put him a two-point to just hit me in the face and then rush. That kind of messes with the timing. Guys just don’t let me run down the field free anymore.”

Graham still has eight TD catches, tied with Marques Colston for the team high. He is one catch below Colston for the team lead, too.

But he is not happy with the way he has played in his third year. Drew Brees’ first interception last Sunday against the Giants bounced of Graham’s hands in traffic.

“It’s disappointing,” Graham said. “You know, I set the bar pretty high for myself and I set my goals pretty high. So I haven’t really achieved any of them. But that’s how it is sometimes. You know, I’ve been banged up and I’ve been dealing with it. But the only thing I can do is I know that this offseason I’m gonna take all this film and I’m gonna soak it in. I’m gonna get in there and learn what I have to do to play and to be the player this team needs.”

Vitt was more positive.

“Jimmy’s done a real good job this year working through his nicks,” he said. “He’s still in the infantile stages of his career. You talk about how long he’s played football and how short his college career was (one in football at Miami), there are a lot of things he’s seeing for the first time, and one of those things is how his body is reacting to a long season.”

Injury update: Five Saints players have been ruled out of Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay –offensive tackles Zach Strief and Charles Brown, RB Chris Ivory, starting safety Malcolm Jenkins and CB Corey White.

FB Jed Collins practiced for the first time this week and is listed as questionable.

The absence of Strief and Brown leaves the Saints with two active tackles. Backup guard Eric Olsen likely will fill in if needed against Tampa Bay.

Follow Saints reporter Guerry Smith on Twitter @CBSSaints.