The Raiders experienced some up and a lot of downs in the four years after they hired Josh McDaniels, and one of the key mainstays to the operation in that time period was defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.
Despite the disfunction in the building under McDaniels, Antonio Pierce and Pete Carroll, Graham was able to leave after the 2025 with his reputation mostly intact.
Graham has been a strong head coaching candidate for the last few years and prior to the 2026 season was hired to the Steelers’ defensive coordinator.
Graham’s tenure in Pittsburgh got off to a reasonable start as his defense kept the Falcons and Patriots to 13 and 20 points, respectively, in weeks one and two.
But after giving up 30 points to the Bengals in week three and 27 points to the Browns on Thursday night, Graham’s stock has taken a hit in the last two weeks.
Further complicating Graham’s situation in Pittsburgh, cameras on Thursday night appeared to show star edge rusher T.J. Watt flipping out on a headset on first year defensive coordinator.
For any lip readers in the audience, it sure looked like Watt dropped a few f-bombs on whoever was on the other end of the line…
Graham had a strained relationship with the Raiders in the final years of his contract, and for the most part it wasn’t his fault.
But the landscape of the NFL changes quickly and suddenly it is the Raiders who look less like a sinking ship than the Steelers.
The pairing of Aaron Rodgers, probably in his last NFL season, with head coach Mike McCarthy has the makings to be a volatile situation before the season is over.
And in fact, we might already be there as of Thursday night…
x: @raidersbeat