The Las Vegas Raiders' defense has endured a bit of an unsteady 2025 campaign. On the one hand, they held the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos to 13, 20 and 10 points, respectively. They've kept an inept offense in the game several times this season.
On the other hand, however, they've given up over 30 points on six occasions, and twice their opponents have eclipsed the 40-point mark. The Raiders' offense makes life difficult on them by not sustaining drives or scoring, but Las Vegas' defense has given up too many long drives of their own.
It feels like, especially lately, this Raiders defense is just tired. They've been on the field so much more than the offense has, and Patrick Graham's unit is starting to lose its edge and bicker with each other a bit as well. They're still somehow the strength of this team, but Las Vegas is fairly weak throughout.
Patrick Graham isn't questioning Raiders' defensive fight or effort
Graham took the podium on Thursday for his weekly press conference, and the veteran coordinator is always very insightful and quite measured. He tends to take the blame for everything, but when asked about his team's energy and competitiveness at this point in a lost season, Graham went off a bit.
"'Im gonna tell you all this again. Unfortunately for me as a coordinator, (I) haven't had a winning season. But as long as I'm the coordinator, as long as Pete's the head coach, as long as we got Maxx Crosby and Elandon Roberts and Adam Butler, I don't know why y'all even ask us that question. It's not going down like that. Period," Graham said. "I don't care what the score is. I don't care what the record is. (They get) 17 opportunities a year to be a football player. All that other stuff is being a professional football player: Workouts, all that stuff like that. This is what we did when we were kids. This is what we're going to do. And I'll be damned if the guys that I know in that room would do it any other way. I don't know. Y'all can ask me again next week, but that's just how it goes down."
When Graham said this, the tension in the room was palpable. He ended the press conference after this, which felt like a vent session for Graham after what has surely been a long and frustrating season. While admiring that Graham defended his players so staunchly, fans also hope he is right.
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At several points throughout the year, members of Raider Nation have pointed out and posted clips on social media of players seemingly packing it in on plays and not giving their full effort. Fans get how hard this season has been on the players, but they still need to be giving it their all.
In all likelihood, Graham has spotted some of these plays, as he frequently tells the media that he watches everything. As long as these issues are being addressed in-house behind the scenes, and the coach is defending his players to the media, there should be no issues in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, fans are probably watching their last few games with Graham on the staff. He's survived through three regimes, but with a fourth one inevitably coming this offseason, you'd think that owner Mark Davis would step in and want some new blood, despite his respect for Graham.
Saddled by a bad offense and poor general manager decisions for the first two years, and influenced to include an archaic defense in his third campaign, it's a wonder how Graham has any passion, enthusiasm or defense left for the Raiders. It was never really his fault.
But Graham is proving to be one of a kind, and someone who'll be missed if he's not back in Las Vegas next season.