With Mike McCarthy having taken ownership of the offense and calling the plays for it, his most impactful hire for the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff was going to come on defense.
McCarthy and the organization found their man to run that side of the ball. Former Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was formally named the Steelers defensive coordinator Friday.
Graham, 47, has worked as a coordinator in the NFL since 2019 for the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants and Raiders. Graham is the Steelers’ sixth defensive coordinator over the past 30 years.
Graham’s ties to McCarthy date to when he served as the latter’s linebackers coach and run game coordinator during McCarthy’s final season as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2018.
McCarthy was named the Steelers’ head coach Tuesday.
A former college defensive lineman who was part of an Ivy League championship team at Yale, Graham joined the NFL coaching ranks on the staff of Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots from 2009-15. He won a Super Bowl ring during that time.
This season was his 18th consecutive as a coach in the NFL, capped as part of a last-place Raiders team that earned the No. 1 overall draft pick and fired its coaching staff.
“I find some comfort in that just seeing (his players on defense) grow, just being a teacher and seeing guys improve over their time,” Graham said during the final week of the regular season. “What I’m looking for is for the guys to go out there and just understand that you play your (rear ends) off.”
The fact that veteran, Super Bowl-winning coach Pete Carroll chose to keep Graham on staff upon taking over the Raiders last winter is emblematic of Graham’s stature in the industry.
“I have so much respect for him,” Carroll said last year of Graham. “He’s smart as hell. He’s got great background and adds to whatever I’ve been doing all these years.
“He has a real command, and he has a real presence in the defensive room with all the position groups.”
During his introductory news conference with the Steelers on Tuesday, McCarthy repeatedly noted the Steelers’ continuity on defense over the past three-plus decades under head coaches Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. It was in 1992 when Cowher took over that he hired Dom Capers as defensive coordinator, and Capers instituted the 3-4 defense that at the time was rarely deployed across the league.
McCarthy later employed Capers to run his Green Bay defenses for nine seasons. This past week, McCarthy said he “wanted to keep the language” the same that the Steelers used under coordinator Teryl Austin the past three seasons.
McCarthy also said “staying with the 3-4 is important.” Graham, upon his hiring by the Raiders three years ago, downplayed the choice of a “base” deployment in the modern game.
“The game is (sub-package) defense. Period, point blank,” Graham said.
“To me, the 4-3, the 3-4 discussions, I mean it’s almost like it’s antiquated, to be honest with you. And what we’re dealing with is ‘sub,’ so when you talk about sub defense, do you have guys on the team that can rush the passer? Yes. Do you have guys on the team that can stop the run? Yes. Do you have guys that have shown they can cover in the pass? Yes. So … those are the three major things I’m looking for aside from tackling.”
The Steelers ranked 26th in total defense and 17th in scoring defense last season. Its defensive players accounted for more of their team’s salary cap share than any team in the NFL.
Four Steelers defensive players have been named first- or second-team AP NFL All-Pro, but Patrick Queen (second team while with the Baltimore Ravens in 2023) is the only one among them who is age 30 or younger. The Steelers’ only All-Pro this season was 36-year-old defensive lineman Cameron Heyward.
Still, the unit has some intriguing younger players such as emerging shutdown cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and 2025 first-round pick lineman Derrick Harmon.
“My job,” Graham said this past season, “is to get (the players) prepared to play the opponent that week and to put those guys in the best position to help minimize the points and make sure we’re ready to go on Sunday. So, my job never changes. It never changes.”
