Patrick Graham leaving Giants to become Raiders defensive coordinator, source says
Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham speaks to the media before training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Giants are back in the market for a defensive coordinator.
Patrick Graham, who was believed to be staying in the role he had for the past two seasons, instead decided to accept the defensive coordinator job with the Raiders on Friday, a source confirmed.
Graham joins former Patriots co-worker Josh McDaniels, who was hired as the Raiders’ head coach earlier this week. NFL Network was the first to report the agreement between the Raiders and Graham.
The Giants announced on Monday that Graham was staying unless he was hired as a head coach, and he was a finalist for the Vikings’ job. But when the Raiders asked him to interview in Las Vegas, he took advantage of that request and made what will be his second lateral move in the past three offseasons.
Graham was the defensive coordinator of the Dolphins for one season, came to the Giants in that role for two, and now will serve with the same title for the Raiders.
Teams can block assistants from making lateral moves, but in this case, the Giants already had granted Graham permission to interview for the Steelers’ defensive coordinator position earlier in the offseason when their own head-coaching job still was open. They were not permitted to close that avenue once it was opened elsewhere.
Graham was a candidate for the Giants’ head-coaching job, which would have made it a bit awkward for him to remain with the team and work under Brian Daboll, who got the job.
The Giants hoped he would remain, but that dynamic along with several others — the firing of his closest friend in coaching, Joe Judge, and the lawsuit filed against the Giants by another of his good friends, former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores — made what seemed like a good idea on paper likely untenable in reality.
So Daboll will have to find someone else to fill the job of running the Giants’ defense. There certainly are plenty of candidates, including former head coaches Mike Zimmer and Vic Fangio, who would add experience to the staff; former Ravens defensive coordinator Don "Wink" Martindale, and former Giants defensive backs coach Dave Merritt, who now works for Kansas City.
Current defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson also might be considered.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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