Former Raiders DC “Crushed” by Jaguars Interview Stunt, Report Says

For the first time since 2021, the Raiders are entering a season without Patrick Graham as their defensive coordinator.

Graham survived two fired head coaches (Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce) during his tenure in Las Vegas and ended his run with the Raiders under Pete Carroll, who evidently didn’t allow Graham to run his own scheme.

According to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, Graham ran his own defense for just six halves of the 2026 season, and if that wasn’t enough, it sounds like Graham’s even bigger disappointment came after the season during his interview process with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

According to an ESPN report this week, Graham was devasted and left to tears after being stood up by the Jaguars’ owner and team executives who had agreed to meet with him at a Jacksonville steakhouse in January.

From that report with contributions from Kris Rhim, Kalyn Kahler and Jason Reid…

“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.

The pain he felt that night as he waited at the table and for weeks after wasn’t because he didn’t get the job — ‘that’s life,’ he said — it was because of the way he didn’t get the job. ‘I was hurt through the process,’ Graham said.

Once home, Graham collapsed to his knees crying on the floor of his garage.

‘It just made me think, like, ‘****, I haven’t done enough,’ Graham, now the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive coordinator, told ESPN. ‘Football is pretty high on my priority list. And it felt like the thing that I hold in the highest regard let me down and crushed me.’”

Graham wasn’t Raiders first choice in ’25

Following his head coaching interviews, Graham was one of the top defensive coordinator candidates in this year’s hiring cycle and was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 30.

The Jaguars deserve scrutiny for the way they handled his interview process, but his final season with the Raiders wasn’t necessary a lot better.

It’s no secret that Graham wasn’t the Raiders first choice to be Carroll’s defensive coordinator in 2025, and some have wondered if Graham’s return was related to Maxx Crosby and the team’s desire to keep a familiar face in the building for Crosby.

This year, the Raiders promoted Rob Leonard to defensive coordinator, and it will be interesting to see how Leonard works with first-year head coach Klint Kubiak. Every indication is that Kubiak is planning to bring big changes to the organization.

“I talked to people behind the scenes, off the record, who have been with this organization and [they] said he’s the best they’ve ever seen in pre-ready practice,” Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’ said this week on his flagship radio show.

“I said elaborate. Someone who has been with the organization as long as me, over 25 years said, quote, ‘I’ve never seen a coach come out on the field ready to practice and there was some good ones.’ I mean, Pete Carroll and Jon Gruden alone and Josh McDaniels was a genius in regard to preparation. It didn’t work, but the guy was prepped up for practice. So someone who I hold in high authority told me that Kubiak’s practices are going to be so bleeping detailed that the players who have played for other coaches are going to have to get into this quickly and that’s why the mini camps OTAs were really important.”

x: @raidersbeat