PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – If you are looking for someone who is a big fan of the new Steelers defensive coordinator, it’s the old Steelers head coach.
Mike Tomlin was highly complementary of the Yale grad and at the time Raiders defensive coordinator. This is what Tomlin said about him before they played Las Vegas early last season.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and he challenges you in a lot of ways schematically,” Tomlin said. “He's thoughtfully aggressive in a lot of circumstances. He likes to apply pressure. Even when he doesn't apply pressure in terms of number of people, he's got top quality rushmen that really control the climate from a passing standpoint.”
As Tomlin went through a list of impact players, most notably Maxx Crosby, he would point out again that it’s not just the individuals, ‘but the aggressive schematics deployed by Patrick Graham’.
Then before moving on to the offense during his news conference, Tomlin finished with these thoughts about the former Patriots assistant and Giants defensive coordinator.
“When I was talking about Patrick Graham schematically, particularly in situational moments, his utilization of personnel,” Tomlin said in 2024. “He'll go nickel 4-2, nickel 5-1. He'll go dime. He'll put six DBs on the field in one-dimensional passive moments. Out of all of those personnel groups, he has a solid complementary package of blitzes, strong side stuff, weak side stuff, zone blitzes, man concepts.”
“It just does a really good job of working to keep coordinators and offensive units off-balance with a well thought of mix of aggressive football.”
Steelers would put up 32 points in a win against the Raiders that day, although with the help of a fumble, blocked punt and interception the Steelers would start possessions at the Raiders 30, nine and seven-yard lines accounting for 17 points. Steelers would total 293 yards (183 yards rushing) and 4 of 13 on third down against Graham’s defense.
This year a couple of other coaches noted about Graham and the Raiders defense.
“They play hard, they play fast, they play physical, they fly around,” said Chicago head coach Ben Johnson.
“We watch the film; we respect what this Raiders team puts out there on film,” said Houston head coach DeMeco Ryans. “They play tough, they play physical.”