Why Patrick Graham's Raiders defense could soon have him in line for a head coaching job (2024)

Before every game, Patrick Graham listens to Mobb Deep to get into the zone. The Las Vegas Raiders’ 44-year-old defensive coordinator grew up in Waterbury, Conn., immersed in the rap duo’s dark, grimy, unabashed lyrics. Revisiting songs from their catalog and enjoying a can of Coca-Cola are two non-negotiable tasks for him before kickoff.

Raiders players never see Graham’s routine — he calls plays from the press box — but they know about it. They also know about his wife, Pamela, and their two children, the football career that got him to Yale, his pet peeves, his favorite foods and other aspects of his journey that made him into the man he is today. When he was hired by the Raiders last year, Graham stressed the importance of a reciprocal exchange of information with players before anything else.

“First and foremost, I’m a teacher,” Graham said last week. “And as a teacher, the best way to get them to learn and to adhere to the lessons is to let them know that you care about the person, not just the football player.”

That extended beyond the practice fields and meeting rooms into sharing meals in the cafeteria and meeting up outside of team headquarters. The relationships that emerged transcended football, but the effects translated to the gridiron. The unavoidable criticism a coach must give a player just lands differently when an authentic bond has already been established.

“NFL players, they cherish honesty over everything else,” Graham said. “It builds trust.”

🔴📽️Live: Patrick Graham and Bo Hardegree address the media from the Intermountain Health Performance Center. https://t.co/cwYjeqlDIr

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) December 29, 2023

There was plenty for Graham to be honest about after an awful season from the Raiders defense in 2022. But rather than searching for others to blame, Graham looked inward.

His biggest takeaway was that he needed to be more patient going into 2023 and hoped, coming off a rough debut season, his “students” would maintain faith in him to figure out how to adjust.

“I just listened,” Graham said. “And, thankfully, the players were onboard.”

The Raiders defense has been transformed. This season, Graham’s unit is eighth in the NFL in scoring defense. The Raiders have not finished in the top 10 in that statistic since 2002. A lot of the credit has to go to Graham.

“He’s doing a great job leading us and putting us in great positions, and we have a lot of guys that are bought in,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said earlier this season. “Everyone’s on the same page.”

Despite a lack of investment in the unit this past offseason — the Raiders rank 31st in defensive spending according to Over the Cap — it has made a massive improvement. In turn, Graham has gone from a hot-seat candidate at the start of the season to a potential head coaching candidate this coming offseason.

With the Raiders’ lousy offense, the defense was the driving force that kept the team going as the season went on. Though Las Vegas has now been eliminated from playoff contention following a loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Graham and the defense still deserve praise for their performance this season.

“As a unit, we just started to trust the process and trust each other,” linebacker Divine Deablo said last week. “Everybody started doing their job instead of trying to be the superhero.”

Across stints as a defensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants, Graham earned a reputation for utilizing a multiple, varied, complicated scheme. Given how frequently the Raiders struggled with communication, mental errors and blown assignments last season, some wondered if Graham was throwing more at the players than they could handle. Once the defense began to show signs of progress this season, a narrative emerged that Graham had simplified things to make his system easier to follow. It’s a notion he adamantly rejects.

“I’ve never said that,” Graham said. “Everybody acts like it’s a bad thing to be smart and I’m making things complicated. … I can’t stand when people say that. It makes no sense. Because I went to Yale and I’m articulate? No, f— that. I hate hearing that.”

While Graham never considered dramatically altering his system, he did believe he needed to do a better job of implementing it. Last year, he found he too frequently tasked players with assignments that didn’t align with their skill set.

“Any failure to get that conveyed to them, I put that on me,” Graham said.

This year, he put more effort toward finding the right role for each player.

“During the offseason, I noticed that he adapted to us — his players — and what we do best,” Deablo said. “Now it’s to where we can play fast and not think as much.”

The approach has paid dividends.

“He’s letting us play,” cornerback Amik Robertson said of Graham. “He’s confident in the plays he’s calling because he’s confident in the players. He’s letting us be us and he’s letting it loose. I think last season he was overthinking, but that was our first year with him.”

Graham’s improved trust was also aided by the addition of several veteran players last offseason. Three of the Raiders’ free-agent signings — defensive tackle John Jenkins, linebacker Robert Spillane and safety Marcus Epps — have started every game this season. Not only have they all played at a high level, but they’ve provided a veteran presence at each level of the defense that has helped avoid mistakes.

“They were just naturally leaders,” Graham said. “I was really looking for an extension of me out there on the field and in the classroom, and they provided that for me.”

With Crosby leading the way, the Raiders have benefitted from a strong collection of experienced contributors. The defense still wouldn’t be what it is now, though, without the notable development of several young players on the roster.

Defensive end Malcolm Koonce, Deablo, nickelback Nate Hobbs, Robertson and safety Tre’von Moehrig — all of whom are starters and were on the roster last year — are all 25 or younger and currently playing the best football of their career. Graham and the position coaches made the decision early on that they were going to lean heavily into the youth movement and give the players the opportunity to grow.

“A lot of times, you can fall into the trap of trying not to play younger players because you’re scared they’re going to make mistakes,” Graham said. “There can’t be any fear to play the younger players. You just go ahead and put them in there.”

The combination of Graham’s adjustments, veterans stepping up and ascending players on rookie deals produced a bend-but-don’t-break defense early in the season. They struggled on third downs and in the red zone but limited points and rarely gave up explosive plays.

As the season has gone on, the Raiders defense has only gotten better. While the players took pride in the growth they were starting to see, they knew they had yet to reach their full potential. They didn’t want to be solid — they wanted to be great.

When former head coach Josh McDaniels was fired eight games into the season, it was a tough moment for Graham. He coached alongside McDaniels with the Patriots and that fostered a friendship that played a large part in his landing with the Raiders. But Graham eventually moved on.

“I just had an epiphany a few days later,” Graham said. “I said, ‘I got into this for the players. I’m going to pour everything into the players. And, for the last however many weeks I have with these guys, that’s what I’m going to do.'”

Graham was considered for the interim head coaching role, but that went to Antonio Pierce. The two have known each other since they overlapped with the Giants in 2016, and working together to lead the defense has gone seamlessly.

“We just kept talking about the process and trusting and believing it and staying within the scheme and letting the plays come to you,” Pierce said last month. “Allow (the players) to use their God-given physical attributes … and then you put them in position to make plays. That’s all coming together. It’s a group that believes in one another.”

Graham didn’t make significant schematic changes, but the defense turned a corner. By signing cornerback Jack Jones in November, the Raiders added a dynamic playmaker in the secondary. Koonce hit his stride and created a fearsome pass-rushing duo with Crosby. The run defense made huge strides. Graham’s unit has consistently produced splash plays like turnovers, sacks and tackles for loss.

JACK JONES. PICK 6!!!!!#LVvsKC | 📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/bbgBQLORn6

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) December 25, 2023

Before the coaching change, the Raiders defense had some good moments but was decidedly below average. After it, the defense has taken a huge step forward.

When it comes to his future, Graham isn’t letting his mind drift. He could return in his current role or become a head coach elsewhere. There’s too much that’s unknown for Graham to get bogged down in that.

“I’m always dealing in the present,” Graham said.

For the Raiders, the ideal outcome would be bringing Graham back. The Las Vegas brass is hoping the defensive success is sustainable, and Graham has shown he can lead that charge. But in his mind, that’ll ultimately come down to the players.

“It’s their defense,” Graham said. “The Raiders are the Raiders because of the players. I mean, that’s it. … When they’ve tasted success, I think that’s going to fuel them to be hungrier when they get back after the offseason. …

“And because they’ve had the experiences on the field together, they’ll be able to carry that over. The progression will go a little bit quicker, and then you’ll be able to see it take off.”

(Top photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

“The Football 100,” the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, is on sale now. Order it here.

Tashan Reed is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Las Vegas Raiders. He previously covered Florida State football for The Athletic. Prior to joining The Athletic, he covered high school and NAIA college sports for the Columbia Missourian, Mizzou football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball for SBNation blog Rock M Nation, wrote stories focused on the African-American community for The St. Louis American and was a sports intern at the Commercial Appeal in Memphis through the Sports Journalism Institute. Follow Tashan on Twitter @tashanreed