Raiders' Graham on Learning from Different Coaches

Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has been a student of the game for a long time.

Graham has been a position coach and a coordinator for most of his football life, having the opportunity to learn from a plethora of brilliant coaches across the league, including New England Patriots legend Bill Belichick.

While Graham is a defensive coordinator, he said there are lessons to learn from offensive and defensive coaches. He can pick things from both sides of the ball to make him a better coach.

Graham joined defensive end Maxx Crosby on the latest episode of his podcast, "The Rush," and discussed what he has learned from offensive and defensive coaches during his time in the NFL.

“You learn so much,” Graham said. “Josh [McDaniels] was really instrumental in terms of different parts of our defense and in terms of the check system. He was able to give me that insight from an offensive perspective. ‘Do this; this will be a little bit more challenging for the offense.’ There’s a ton of help there. So, I can’t say it’s either or, and then Joe Judge, when I was with the New York Giants, he was a [quality control coach] when I was a QC. We were all QCs together. So, I would say the guys that weren’t offensive head coaches I spent a lot of time with, because we were in the same role, basically. The offensive head coaches I’ve worked for when I was a position coach, you learn a lot from those guys if you’re willing to listen and you’re paying attention to their coaching points.”

Graham was actually the coach who brought Antonio Pierce to the team. Crosby asked Graham what he saw in Pierce that inspired him to bring him on.

“I was working under [Steve Spagnulo] with the Giants, and AP came in as an intern -- I’m trying to get all the titles right,” Graham said. “I didn’t even realize until halfway through the season; I just knew he wasn’t there on Friday for whatever reason. He was coaching a high school team out here in L.A., I said, ‘Dude, you go to L.A.?’ He was going Saturday to see his son; I didn’t know what he had going on. Then, he would come back for the game and then throughout the week for practice.

“But the level of detail in terms of how he studies it -- I was coaching D-Line, but I would ask him questions about how he would see it from a linebacker perspective because aside from learning from Bill and all the coaches I worked for, the players and the former players, if you’re willing to listen, they give you the nuggets.”

Click here to watch the full podcast episode with Graham and Crosby.

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