Patrick Graham appreciation thread

[NYRaider]

Hats off to PG

I wasn’t a fan before the year but we are likely going to have a top 7 defense this year with the 30th lowest defensive payroll 

Question is: does Graham get a HC job this offseason 

[Totty]

PG gets the same contact AP does to stay.  

[Tank4Drake]

Patrick Graham is the real reason for this team playing lights out. Doesn’t have much to do with AP. Sure, AP is a great motivator, but that’s not a staple for long term success. We are winning games and smashing teams because of Patrick Graham playing 4D chess on defense. And his scheme being utterly amazing. Graham is also a fantastic motivator himself and has been a HC candidate for 3-4 years. 

Hire AP, and you get Graham one more season before he’s HC somewhere. And then the defense will suck again. Finding an elite OC or elite DC is a complete rarity. Rarity. 

AP was only named HC not to distract from Graham coaching the defense mid-season. That’s why Mark always makes positional coaches or ST coach as the Interim guy. It doesn’t mean Graham can’t do it. He’s actually way way more qualified than AP. 

Patrick Graham is 100% legit and this defense looks elite caliber for the first time since the 80’s. I’m fine with Graham as Head Coach. I still think AP is fools gold that will be 10000% reliant on Coordinators (super hard to find good ones). Graham will not be reliant on a DC. It’s his defense. His system. Without him, the system dies. 

[SimonGruber]

10 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

Hats off to PG

I wasn’t a fan before the year but we are likely going to have a top 7 defense this year with the 30th lowest defensive payroll 

Question is: does Graham get a HC job this offseason 

Still seems a year early but his trajectory looks promising. Imagine a stud at DT and maybe a 3rd pass rush specialist added into the mix 

Edited December 25, 2023 by SimonGruber

[Nightmare]

He’s done very well this season. It’s Crosby & a bunch of JAGs, but statistically our defense has been very good.

I think regardless of what direction we go at HC, Graham deserves a chance to stay on.

[Tank4Drake]

Just now, Nightmare said:

He’s done very well this season. It’s Crosby & a bunch of JAGs, but statistically our defense has been very good.

I think regardless of what direction we go at HC, Graham deserves a chance to stay on.

He doesn’t get a HC look? He is literally the reason for our success, not AP. 

[Nightmare]

20 minutes ago, Tank4Drake said:

He doesn’t get a HC look? He is literally the reason for our success, not AP. 

I don’t think so, because rightly or wrongly, AP is the face of what the Raiders are doing right now rather than Patrick Graham.

[BackinBlack]

3 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

I don’t think so, because rightly or wrongly, AP is the face of what the Raiders are doing right now rather than Patrick Graham.

I do think it really depends on how mark went about making AP the IHC. 
 

did he just ignore PG, or did he explain that he was thrilled so far with our D and wanted to just keep him there. 
 

Do things the right way, and you leave yourself options.. unfortunately the raiders normally do things the wrong way, and maybe we did piss PG off by not giving him the IHC role? Who knows.

[Tank4Drake]

Graham is literally putting out a complete masterclass every game. He has QB’s and OC’s completely dumbfounded. He had Andy Reid completely confused and perplexed. Without Graham, AP and his “motivation” wouldn’t be doing anything. I appreciate AP’s fire, but the success here is because of Graham. 

[jpaulthe1st]

@ronjon1990 Curious to get your thoughts here. You’ve been the biggest PG detractor by a country mile. Has he won you over yet? 

[BackinBlack]

4 minutes ago, Tank4Drake said:

Graham is literally putting out a complete masterclass every game. He has QB’s and OC’s completely dumbfounded. He had Andy Reid completely confused and perplexed. Without Graham, AP and his “motivation” wouldn’t be doing anything. I appreciate AP’s fire, but the success here is because of Graham. 

Graham was starting Wilson and Peter’s every week until AP took over. 
Pride plays a huge role, and I think Graham loved Wilson as a DE to much to see Koonce. And Peters. Jones being released was honestly just pure perfect / lucky timing for AP, but he has helped Grahams schemes a ton. 

[ronjon1990]

57 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

Hats off to PG

I wasn’t a fan before the year but we are likely going to have a top 7 defense this year with the 30th lowest defensive payroll 

Question is: does Graham get a HC job this offseason 

Lol no. 

Why? Because GMs aren't magically forgetting his past results, or lack thereof, just yet. If he does what he's never done before and our unit gets through next season without his usual regression, maybe he gets some look. 

[ronjon1990]

4 minutes ago, BackinBlack said:

Graham was starting Wilson and Peter’s every week until AP took over. 
Pride plays a huge role, and I think Graham loved Wilson as a DE to much to see Koonce. And Peters. Jones being released was honestly just pure perfect / lucky timing for AP, but he has helped Grahams schemes a ton. 

This doesn't get talked about enough. 

AP went from subordinate to Graham to being his boss. Graham was objectively bad last year, and has usually been extremely underwhelming as a schemer, adjuster, and playcaller. 

How much of the change is truly Graham and how much is it a non-Patriots HC taking control over the room and forcing adjustments that simply were not being made prior? 

Graham, when left to his own devices, doesn't have a track record of sustained success. Hard not to have some questions about why the defense looks significantly improved with a defensive minded HC when many of the issues  still persisted when Graham was the defacto HC on D given the actual HC was busy masquerading as an OC. 

[BackinBlack]

Just now, ronjon1990 said:

This doesn't get talked about enough. 

AP went from subordinate to Graham to being his boss. Graham was objectively bad last year, and has usually been extremely underwhelming as a schemer, adjuster, and playcaller. 

How much of the change is truly Graham and how much is it a non-Patriots HC taking control over the room and forcing adjustments that simply were not being made prior? 

Graham, when left to his own devices, doesn't have a track record of sustained success. Hard not to have some questions about why the defense looks significantly improved with a defensive minded HC when many of the issues  still persisted when Graham was the defacto HC on D given the actual HC was busy masquerading as an OC. 

All last year too I was told the D sucked because our qb play was bad. 
crazy that some of y’all believed that. 

our O and QB play has regressed, so I feel like some of you would’ve believed it’d be fine for our D to regress, 

but instead they are balling despite a terrible O.

they were on the entire second quarter but thankfully didn’t just tire out like I was told just happens.

[ronjon1990]

5 hours ago, BackinBlack said:

All last year too I was told the D sucked because our qb play was bad. 
crazy that some of y’all believed that. 

our O and QB play has regressed, so I feel like some of you would’ve believed it’d be fine for our D to regress, 

but instead they are balling despite a terrible O.

they were on the entire second quarter but thankfully didn’t just tire out like I was told just happens.

No lies detected. 

They're playing well. No way anyone can deny it.  But man people are riding Graham's jock so hard right now like he wasn't God awful last year. And it wasn't just statistically, the decisions were just outright bad. 

What changed? What's different?

Talent level? No. 

Better offense and QB? Hell no.

The HC changed and the new guy scrapped the old ways of doing things. 

When McDaniels was here, the defense was under Graham and Graham alone. And it was mid at best, but usually pretty damn atrocious. I have little doubt that Graham is no longer in 100% control of the defense- too many key changes have coincided with Pierce taking over. 

I'm still skeptical that our defense repeats the same heights next year. But even if we punt on that, there's still the burning question- Is it Pierce, who has been very loud and proud and vocal in how he goes about things and puttinghis stamp on the team, or is it all of a sudden Graham, the guy who refused to play Koonce, kept starting Peters, lined Cle up at CB, and blatantly spent all of 2022 seeminglygoing out of his way to not make any adjustments? He alone all of a sudden woke up and made all these major adjustments that were painfully obvious up until Pierce became his boss? I sincerely doubt that.

My guess is Pierce watched and knew it was garbage that Koonce was being rotated  in and out while Tyree sat in one place waiting for Godot to come and that Peters was playing with the intestinal fortitude of an amoeba and told Graham what was up once no longer under his thumb. Graham is a Pats guy who follows other Pats guys around, and we all know what Pats guys 100% do not do- make adjustments, because it's the player, not the system.

The guy has been bad overall for years, save for once in New York and this year, and we got jokers in here saying he's going to be a HC candidate? First, no, he's not. GMs know what's up as far as that goes. But what's more? AP is a defense guy, not offense. Have we completely forgotten how the offense was "Gruden's" and "McDaniels'" while the defense was "Guenther's" and "Bradley's"? Is the defense not attributable to the HC when he's a defense guy the same way it is when the HC is an offense guy? What type of double standard is that? 

This place is usually inconsistent at its best, but the Graham knobs slobbing is absolutely laughable in the amount of recency bias it takes to be saying our success is on him and he's a viable HC candidate or should be a requirement for our next HC to keep around. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by ronjon1990