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Daronte Jones and the Defensive Staffing Thread
- Thread starter Primus Porcus
- Start date
Dlts20
The Starter
Good news. We aren't on the list so far.
I can't see Morris receiving another HC position this year
I think we all know why he's being brought in for those interviews. His HC days are over in the NFL.
method man
The Starter
I don’t know man. He’s like a startup founder pitching investors on pixie dust. He has an innate ability to shine in interviews
Discobob
The Free Agent Vet
Respect
Organizational success
Optimism
Notable endorsements
Eager
Years of preparation
Dlts20
The Starter
Lol.... I didn't even notice the HC part. I thought they were all for him to be the DC and I was glad that we weren't on the list but yes, we all know why he's being brought in.
With that being said, dude has to be one of the best interviewers in the league for him to keep getting opportunities.
Yeah, he's very convincing and always has extremely strong endorsements from respected coaches that GMs and owners trust; but the proof is in the pudding, and the Raheem as HC experiment should be over. And out.
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This Is How A Yale Grad Became The Dolphins' Defensive Coordinator
It's been a long time since **Patrick Graham** studied chemical engineering and dreamed of a career with the CIA.
His life's work has been all about football for the past 17 years, and he is more than excited about starting a new chapter in that profession.
Graham is ready to take over as Dolphins defensive coordinator after being picked by new Head Coach **Brian Flores** to join his coaching staff.
It's a new challenge for Graham, but one he says he's ready to tackle head on.
And why does Graham feel he's ready?
"It's going to be from the preparation," Graham said. "That's all I can tell you, I'm going to prepare to be ready and when the time comes, it comes. I'm going to be prepared to be ready. That's how I know to be ready. Any other situation I've gotten ready for has been through preparation."
During his time in New England, Graham got the chance to work with Flores, who followed him as linebackers coach in 2016. More than that, the two shared an office and built a relationship that eventually went beyond football.
"Coach Flores is an impressive person," Graham said. "That's all I can tell you. He's an impressive person. I've always thought that about him. Even in those days when you spend all that time together, I've always thought about Coach Flores, that he is an impressive human being. From the time you meet him, you realize there's something different about him."
.."Pat is a Yale guy," Flores said. "He's extremely bright. He is great with the fundamentals and has very strong leadership ability. I can't say enough good things about him. We worked together in New England and I know the type of passion he has and the way he works. We have a lot of the same core values and beliefs from a defensive standpoint."
For his part, Graham was asked how somebody ended up going from Yale to becoming an NFL defensive coordinator.
This Is How A Yale Grad Became The Dolphins' Defensive Coordinator
It's been a long time since Patrick Graham studied chemical engineering and dreamed of a career with the CIA.
www.miamidolphins.com
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How Patrick Graham’s adaptability spurred Raiders’ defensive renaissance
Las Vegas' defensive coordinator has combined past experiences with lessons from Bill Belichick providing a base for his approach.
www.nytimes.com
How Patrick Graham’s adaptability spurred Raiders’ defensive renaissance
Las Vegas' defensive coordinator has combined past experiences with lessons from Bill Belichick providing a base for his approach.
www.nytimes.com
How Patrick Graham’s adaptability spurred Raiders’ defensive renaissance
The Raiders have been the model of consistency over the past 20 seasons in one category: bad defense. From 2003-2022, they ranked 31st in points allowed per drive (2.54). This season, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham performed a minor miracle.The Raiders spent the second-least amount of money on defense and their second-highest-paid player, Chandler Jones, didn’t play a down for them. Yet, Graham engineered arguably the best defense the Raiders have had in the last two decades. They finished 12th in points allowed per drive and eighth in defensive DVOA.
Graham began his NFL coaching career in New England as an assistant where he was tasked with a discipline that has become a rite of passage for young Patriots coaches called padding. Padding is a practice in which a coach watches the film of another team and diagrams each one of their plays. That had to be done with meticulous detail when working for Bill Belichick. Each game could take up to eight hours to pad.
“So through the pad, it trained my eyes to be able to look at the tape and, OK, I could see a bunch of stuff at one time and be able to draw it because otherwise, you’re going to just keep rewinding, rewinding, rewinding, and it’s going to take too long to pad the game,” Graham said. “So that’s something in terms of just how to see the game, that came from New England. And I think it helps me now as a play caller because I can figure out quickly what opponents are doing and get an idea.”
One of the most important lessons Graham learned from Belichick was figuring out how offenses wanted to play and how to take it away. For a team to beat them, they would have to do it with their offhand. But it’s not always easy to identify what an offense wants to do. Everyone knows who the offense wants to get the ball to on third down, but what about the other aspects of their offense that allow them to get into a groove?
...“Are they trying to run to the bubble? Are they trying to cut back to the three-technique? Are they always running everything to the left side because they’re trying to crack? That training (padding) helped me to get to what’s the main thing that offenses want to do,” Graham said.
After leaving New England, Graham coached the defensive line for Steve Spagnuolo with the Giants in 2016. There he learned Spagnuolo’s pressure packages, which are as extensive and exotic as you’ll find in the league. He went to Green Bay in 2017 and coached linebackers with Mike Pettine and was the defensive run game coordinator. Under Pettine, he became more versed in quarters or cover 4 which he’s slowly implemented more as a play caller.
He got his first defensive coordinator job in 2019 with Miami under Brian Flores, with whom he worked in New England. He went back to his roots and ran a more Patriots-like system, calling predominately man coverage, blitzing and mixing up his fronts. Creating confusion on early downs with multiple fronts is something Graham hangs his hat on.
“I’m by nature more of a front guy,” Graham said. “You want to minimize the run game and you want to eliminate explosive pass plays. So how do you do that? If you can bring more people into it that have to be decision-makers, the better off you’ll be to have a chance for negative play.”
Graham knows the quarterbacks do the most studying and are usually the most prepared for a game mentally, so his philosophy is to force everyone else on the offense to make decisions. Testing non-quarterbacks increases the chances to force mistakes.
...One of the first signs that the Raiders’ defense was truly transforming into a formidable unit was when they held the high-flying Dolphins’ offense coming off of a bye week to only 20 points. This game was emblematic of Graham’s philosophy of making the offense play off-handed. They started by taking away the explosive outside runs. Against the Raiders, the Dolphins didn’t have one explosive run (carry of 10 yards or more) and their fourth-worst EPA per rush game of the season.
“To the untrained eye, it seemed like a bunch of different plays,” Graham said. “Yeah, I mean, what’s the main objective? I’m not going to give away stuff like that, but like, what was the main objective of the run game?”
“Try to get outside?” I guessed.
...“Yeah, and then like, so like, let’s take away that and make them run somewhere else. And, you know, but just get to it quickly, get it communicated to the players so they can execute and then minimize their strength and try to make them play left-handed.”
There are a lot of coaches who say that they tailor their scheme to the strengths of their players but when the rubber meets the road, they revert to what they know best. What we’ve seen in the five years that Graham has been a coordinator is adaptability — the one quality that Belichick’s disciples failed to replicate when they branched out.
Of course, there may not be a person on the earth with the football knowledge to reinvent himself year after year as Belichick can, but Graham has shown signs of transference of Belichick’s most important trait: being scheme-gnostic.
The link I presume is Pete Carroll vouching for him
method man
The Starter
PG survived 3 regimes in Vegas. He’s a good defensive mind and he has never had great talent to work with as a DC. One of those guys who has done a solid job with below average talent throughout his career.
The Raiders D took a dip this season because Carroll involved himself in the game planning and made him run a lot of outdated Cover 3
The Raiders D took a dip this season because Carroll involved himself in the game planning and made him run a lot of outdated Cover 3
Graham joins Quinn and has he been coaching defenders in Vegas we might covet...Mad Maxx
clskinsfan
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I wouldn’t but Quinn might
Dlts20
The Starter
I'm extremely pro aggression on both sides of the ball and extremely pro blitz if coached well so I would be happy with Graham
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