In the weeks leading up to the Raiders decision on a new head coach, all signs were pointing toward Patrick Graham taking a job somewhere else in 2025. On his podcast this week, Sports Illustrated’s Hondo Carpenter said even Graham thought he would be with a new team after the season.
Graham reportedly turned down a contract extension from the Raiders prior to the 2024 season, and he was expected to be one of the most coveted defensive coaches in this year’s hiring cycle.
One of the teams interested in Graham as a head coach and defensive coordinator candidate was the Jacksonville Jaguars, but the Jags decided to go with former Buccaneers OC Liam Coen for their head coaching vacancy.
According to league insider Josina Anderson, the Jaguars then turned to Graham to fill their vacant defensive coordinator position, but Graham had already reached a verbal agreement with the Raiders.
“Thursday morning I heard from additional league sources telling me that Graham actually continued to be in demand through the negotiations of his deal to return to Las Vegas —as Jacksonville still attempted to insert last minute persuasions to make him a Jaguar,” Anderson reported on Friday.
On Monday, Carpenter added to Anderson’s report, saying Graham actually turned down more money to stay in Las Vegas.
“Patrick [Graham] had the opportunity to go other places for other money, and I [haven’t] addressed any more… but now some of the details have leaked and I’m going to go ahead and give them all to you,” Hondo said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“Moments after the story broke that Patrick Graham was going to re-sign with the Raiders, the Jacksonville Jaguars reached out to him and made it abundantly clear asking him not to sign a deal [with the Raiders] and they were willing to pay him more than what the Raiders are going to pay him. But Patrick Graham nixed it and said, ‘No, I gave my word’ and didn’t turn it into a bidding war.”
In a previous podcast, Hondo said he would share why Graham made the decision to leave the Raiders if it ended up playing out that way.
It didn’t happen and maybe now we’ll never know.
But based on the Jaguars story, it seems the reason would have had nothing to do with money.
x: @raidersbeat
I respect PG big time for standing by his word! 🫡