Report: Raiders Working on Patrick Graham Contract to Return as DC Under Pete Carroll

The Las Vegas Raiders are going into the 2025 season with a new head coach, but they are reportedly working toward maintaining some continuity at the defensive coordinator spot.

NFL insider Josina Anderson reported Wednesday that Las Vegas is "working on a deal" to bring back Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator on head coach Pete Carroll's staff. He was the team's D.C. for each of the last three seasons.

Las Vegas may have some competition, as the Jacksonville Jaguars announced Monday they interviewed Graham for their D.C. position.

That was all the more notable because Jacksonville interviewed him multiple times for its head coaching vacancy as well before it hired Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen.

Graham has a number of stops on his resume and first entered the NFL as a coach in 2009 as an assistant for the New England Patriots. He stayed with New England for seven seasons in various roles before he was hired as the defensive line coach of the New York Giants in 2016.

He stayed in New York for two years, went to the Green Bay Packers in 2018, went to the Miami Dolphins in 2019 as the D.C. and then returned to the Giants as the D.C. in 2020. He was the D.C. in New York for two seasons before joining the Raiders.

Unfortunately for Graham, his defenses have never been dominant from a statistical perspective when he is the D.C.

He has never had a defense finish better than 12th in the league in yards allowed or ninth in the league in points allowed. What's more, four of his six defenses were 23rd or worse in the league in points allowed, including last year's Raiders team.

Las Vegas was 15th in the league in yards allowed and 25th in points allowed on the way to a 4-13 record and last-place finish in the AFC West.

Yet the front office and Carroll surely believe in Graham's ability to turn things around if they are working toward bringing him back on the new staff.