Patrick Graham was a solid defensive coordinator for the Las Vegas Raiders during his four-year stint. Was he groundbreaking? Certainly not, but he was hampered by poor talent acquisition and an overall bad environment in Las Vegas. And yet still kept the unit afloat and led a massive turnaround in 2023.
He survived three major regime changes with the Raiders, initially signing on with Josh McDaniels but lasting through Antonio Pierce and Pete Carroll. But he was gunning for head coaching jobs, and even interviewed for some other defensive coordinator gigs, during his time in Las Vegas.
And who could blame him? The Silver and Black have been unstable for decades, and the front office didn't exactly make Graham's job easier on him. But he unfortunately learned that things can get even worse than that when applying for the Jacksonville Jaguars' head post ahead of last season.
Raiders fans will be upset to read details of Jaguars' Patrick Graham snub
As part of an exposé about The Rooney Rule, which was a well-intentioned mandate at its inception designed to give minority coaches a fair pathway to leadership positions in the NFL but has recently faced scrutiny for how it works in practice, ESPN spoke to Graham about his Jaguars interviews.
The stories from it are quite frightening, and they reveal that Graham got screwed over worse by Jacksonville than any Raiders fans could have imagined.
"Patrick Graham sat at a table set for five at a Jacksonville steakhouse in January 2025. He had shown up to meet with Jaguars owner Shahid Khan and team executives after interviewing for the head coaching job earlier that day.
"The then-Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator waited alone for about 30 minutes, his hopes for getting the job fading minute by minute. He took a selfie with the empty chairs.
"Graham didn't know it yet, but the group of Jaguars executives had not shown for the dinner because, at the same time, they were discussing a contract with future head coach Liam Coen, who had reentered the interview process after withdrawing the previous day. The dinner marked Graham's second awkward moment that day -- two NFL sources told ESPN -- as he had run into Coen while he was leaving the team facility, the first sign that Coen might have had the job in hand even as Graham interviewed for it."
Raider Nation remembers this whole debacle with Coen, as he was loosely tied to the head coach opening in Las Vegas that Pete Carroll eventually filled because of his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where new GM John Spytek had serious connections after over a decade there.
While fans knew that there was something shady going on with Coen, considering he announced his return to Tampa Bay just days before he took the Jaguars job, Raider Nation wasn't privy to just how badly Graham got stiffed in the process. It was unfair and brutal to a stand-up guy and a good coach.
Graham admitted that he went home and cried in his garage after realizing the stunt that Jacksonville had just pulled. The Jaguars' team president denied some of the details of Graham's story, stating that he merely arrived late and that it was a miscommunication.
But he didn't deny that the rest of the organization's brass didn't show up, and he couldn't even make himself say that Graham was a serious candidate for the job. Graham endured a similar experience again this offseason when the Miami Dolphins hired Jeff Hafley hours after his interview with them.
Before last season began, Graham apparently addressed this with his Raiders players. He showed the team the selfie that he took alone at that table in Jacksonville to show himself at his most vulnerable state. The team supported him, and Maxx Crosby backed his coach in a quote to ESPN.
Now the defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a good portion of Raider Nation may think that this is water under the bridge. But this was a member of the Silver and Black being yanked around and disrespected, so it should frustrate the fanbase for Graham.
Add us as a preferred source on Google