Raiders DC Patrick Graham says core pieces are in place

Football being the ultimate game of adjustments, Patrick Graham has already encountered his first pivot as the defensive coordinator of the Raiders.

And it has nothing to do with matching up to another team’s surprise personnel grouping on a certain down and distance.

“I was not anticipating this wind or this cold,” Graham said laughing, pointing out the recent gusty and chilly conditions in Las Vegas.

In fact, it’s forced Graham to contemplate trading the shorts he’s been wearing in the mornings for something a little more protective.

“I may have to switch it up,” he said.

Weather adjustments aside, Graham is making the transition from New York to Las Vegas as seamlessly as possible. That includes figuring out ways to take a Raiders defensive roster built to play a 4-3 defense and fitting it to the scheme he intends to install.

What that ultimately looks like isn’t yet known, although a presumptive case can be made for the 3-4 front Graham typically oversaw in his time as the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins.

If so, it would mean a slightly different world for players like Maxx Crosby and Yannick Ngakoue, a pair of defensive ends who excel in a 4-3 look.

But just like swapping out a pair of shorts for a pair of sweat pants depending on that day’s temperature, the key is to have alternatives to fit the situation.

As football keeps showing us these days, it’s not how you initially line up anymore. It’s how you match up throughout a game to better defend ever-changing situations and personnel groupings.

“So to me, the 4-3, the 3-4 discussions, I mean it’s almost like it’s antiquated, to be honest with you,” Graham said.

That puts a personnel premium not on scheme fit, necessarily, but on having enough players capable of carrying out fundamental responsibilities.

In the short time Graham has been in Las Vegas, he sees a sturdy foundation of players able to do that. And that is before some of the expected reinforcements arrive via free agency and the draft.

“When you talk about sub defense, do you have guys on the team that can rush the passer? Yes,” Graham said. “Do you have guys on the team that can stop the run? Yes. Do you have guys that can cover, that have shown they can cover the pass? Yes. Those are the three things I’m looking for, aside from tackling. So yeah, I’m good.”

Graham arrives in Las Vegas from New York, where he spent the last two seasons as the Giants defensive coordinator. A Yale sociology major and defensive lineman, the 43-year-old turned to coaching one year after graduation. The winding road he immediately embarked on has delivered him to heights and places he never envisioned.

“I’m pretty blessed in terms of my career,” Graham said.

Along the way he made college coaching stops at Wagner, Richmond, Notre Dame and Toledo before landing in the NFL as a coaching assistant with the New England Patriots. Under the guidance of Bill Belichick, Graham spent seven formative years climbing a coaching ladder from general assistant to defensive assistant to linebackers coach to defensive line coach and back to linebackers coach.

It was in New England where he crossed paths with Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, now the Raiders head coach and general manager, respectfully. And after spending the last six years with the New York Giants (defensive line coach), Green Bay Packers (linebackers coach), Dolphins (defensive coordinator) and as the defensive coordinator of the Giants, Graham was an immediate target of McDaniels to run his defense in Las Vegas.

It looked like a long shot initially. A finalist for the Vikings head coaching position that ultimately went to Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, it was generally assumed Graham would return to the Giants. After all, Graham always said the Giants were his dream job and new head coach Brian Daboll publicly expressed interest in retaining him

But the opportunity to head west with McDaniels and Ziegler was too good to pass up.

“As always, you try to make the best decisions for your family and professional career,” Graham said. “It just so happened to be with someone I knew from the past.”

The Raiders’ job is not the a culmination of his coaching career by any means. Graham is a highly regarded NFL coach and on the fast track to running his own team.

In some ways, this is just one more stop along the way.

But it doesn’t lessen the appreciation for the opportunity. Or every step along the way that has led to it.

“I played at Yale. I ended up coaching at Notre Dame at one point,” Graham said. “Then I ended up coaching at the Patriots. The Miami Dolphins, the Green Bay Packers. The New York Giants. And then I’m at the Raiders. I mean, you just look at that in terms of, when you tell me when I was 23-years-old when I started off coaching that I was going to be able to do that. There’s no way in the world I would have thought that.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.