Raiders' DC Patrick Graham's Presser Chiefs Week

The Las Vegas Raiders (6-8) play the Kansas City Chiefs (9-5) at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Christmas Day, and the Silver and Black are not only playing for their NFL Playoff lives.

The Raiders are playing for Interim Coach Antonio Pirece in attempting to convince owner Mark Davis that he is the one to lead the franchise forward in 2024.

A victory in this battle between bitter AFC West rivals would not be a small step toward Pierce getting the job permanently; it would be a monster leap.

Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham spoke ahead of this all-important game on the road at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

You can watch the entire press conference above, and read the transcript below:

Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham

Q: You've seen defensive end Tyree Wilson used all over the line of scrimmage, especially inside. What was the emphasis behind that?

Graham: "I would say for Tyree, any time you can have flexibility in the front, that's a positive. They can't get a beat on where you're lining up, who they're studying in terms of going into the game. And I think the thing for Tyree is because of his skill set in terms of his physical makeup, he has length, he's a strong player, can play with good leverage; it allows for us to move him around and maybe take advantage of his quickness, his length on certain guys, so that's always a positive. And like I've said before, I think it's always good with those young edge rushers. Again, not every case, but I think in a lot of cases I've been involved with, it's always good to move them down there early, so they understand how to use their hands. And then it's just going to transfer to them being better players on the outside."

Q: A couple of days ago, Interim Coach Antonio Pierce was talking about Malcolm Koonce and said that you guys have kind of had to adapt how you coach the player more so than adapting the player to what you guys do. What's been the overall structure of how that's looked from developing Malcolm Koonce?

Graham: "Well, I can't speak for AP [Antonio Pierce], but I could take you through what I think happened with Malcolm [Koonce]. Malcolm, a skilled player in terms of speed, quickness with, the ability to bend, plays with his hands, and just the consistency of his play showing up. And where did it start? It started in practice. I mean, you can ask everybody on defense. Me, myself, Robbie [Rob Leonard], Matt [Edwards], AP, we've pointed out how he's been practicing this whole year. And I will say especially over the last six weeks, it's been impressive. I stopped watching the tape one time just for dramatic effect, I guess, and we had gone 20 plays and I said, you know Malcolm's done everything exactly how we wanted to do this whole practice. And I made sure the next day when we got with the players, I made sure that I told them that. I said that's why he's getting better. So, again, how we adapt to it, it's our job to put them in the right spots and make sure we're teaching them the right things. But I think just what Malcolm's done, again, I never want to give us too much credit. It's him making the decision to practice the right way, get better, to improve, put in the necessary work, that's just what it comes down to in professional football. Guys making the decision to improve and then me trying to stay out of the way and not mess them up. And I couldn't be more proud of that guy. I still remember the Zoom call I had with him when he was coming out of college when he was at Buffalo. I liked him then, I like him now. He's a great player, I mean, he's just been improving every day, and it started with practice. So, it's not just coach speak when we say that. I mean, you could probably ask him that, but I don't want to speak for him."

Q: Going back to Tyree Wilson, how much have you seen in terms of just the development of his confidence and just his belief of what he's doing?

Graham: "Part of confidence starts with getting reps, I think. Just get repetition. We talk about it all the time, self-confidence over self-esteem. Self-esteem, a lot of time is the talk, self-confidence comes from the preparation you put in, the work you put in. So, he's constantly getting better in practice. Again, I can't stress it enough. And I think it's so important, especially in this game, that how you practice becomes game reality. We all talk about that, you've heard that, and in practice, between periods, the time before practice when he's out there, he's putting in the work and then they're seeing the results. And couldn't be more proud of him in terms of how he's improved."

Q: Limiting yards after catch is important every week, but is it emphasized a little bit more when you're facing a team like Kansas City who leads the league in yards after catch?

Coach Graham: “Absolutely. You've got to talk about their strengths. So, as we get the stats or the analytics, whatever you want to call it, and you're looking at yards after catch: ‘Ok. Whoa, they're good at this. Tackling is important this week.’ I mean, it's always important, but I think when their strength jumps out to you, you've got to point that out to the players. Because as we go into the game, yes, we're trying to minimize the points, we're trying to win situational football, but we're trying to minimize their strengths. So, if that's a strength, you've got to point it out and then more importantly, for us as coaches, we've got to tell them how we're going to do that. We need to make sure the pursuit is good and we're running to the ball and we're gang tackling, and we're limiting the explosives after they catch the ball. So, you got to always point out their strengths, I think.”

Q: I know you're just constantly watching film, so how many times did you watch the Jack Jones play? And did you think he had it in him?

Coach Graham: “I probably watched it four to six times. And did I think he had it in him? Yeah. I mean, he's a good player. He studied the tape and, again, we go back to that four by one, I'll let somebody else tell that story. But the four by one, that's something that we've seen from that coordinator since his time at Dallas, and they put Zeke (Ezekiel Elliot) out at one, or it was just different things. We've seen that play and we talked about that play. And I think he did a good job of reading it and trusting his instincts, but did I think he had it in him? Yes. I mean, he's an instinctual football player and we try to encourage that as much as possible. Now, the one-handed catch, that looked like the Michael Jordan kiss the rim (dunk)? That's what I saw. When I kept rewinding it, it made me think of how he caught it, it was like MJ on the kiss the rim dunk. I'm probably just talking, I'm old, but like that's what it reminded me of, and I said that that would be a real cool poster just like the kiss the rim (dunk) poster was pretty cool.”

Q: Did you know he had hands like that?

Coach Graham: “Yeah, I thought he could do it.”

Q: When you guys have a whole team performance like you just had and have all that extra time off, would you prefer to get back out there and try to keep that going?

Coach Graham: “At this point of the season, time off to see your family during the holidays? I mean, if AP [Antonio Pierce] gives it to us, we'll take it. My babies, they appreciate it. So, we got a few extra hugs, a few extra kisses and stuff from the kiddos and the wife. So, I mean, I'm not going to complain about that. We'll get the work in.”

The Silver and Black will return to action versus their AFC West rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, on Christmas Day at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Don't miss it on Monday, December 25, at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST.

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