Could new DC Patrick Graham be the first Steelers coordinator in decades who is free to coordinate his own defense? Certainly, under Mike Tomlin, we know he had his thumb on the scale for many years. That includes all of Teryl Austin’s tenure and Keith Butler’s before him, and at least some under Dick LeBeau.
Mike Tomlin is now gone, however, and for the first time since before Tomlin was even born, the Steelers have an offensive-minded head coach in Mike McCarthy. With him comes Patrick Graham, the new defensive coordinator, who steps into a very different environment. And quite possibly a more important one, beat writer Mike DeFabo argues, for both sides. Coming from the Raiders, having worked under Pete Carroll, it’s a new experience all around.
“I think it’s gonna be very much the opposite, where Pete Carroll was still trying to run his old school Cover 3 Seattle Seahawks stuff that worked during the Legion of Boom and even before that. Right now, I think that Patrick Graham has great autonomy to make a lot of decisions” for the Steelers’ defense, DeFabo said on 102.5 WDVE.
“Really, Patrick Graham is getting a great opportunity. He’s also a critical part here”, he added, likening it to the credit Sean Payton has received despite so much belonging to his defensive coordinator in Denver. “That’s where I really like Graham is really actually a much bigger and more important piece than maybe people are realizing”.
Mike McCarthy is, of course, not unfamiliar with the Steelers’ style of defense. He employed Dom Capers for nearly a decade in Green Bay, who was the Steelers’ DC in the early 1990s. Patrick Graham is not a direct descendant of that lineage, but he’s had his points of contact. Importantly, he brings reference points from around the league, including seven years under Bill Belichick.
While McCarthy made clear that he wants certain things from Graham on defense, all accounts suggest he otherwise has autonomy to run his own show. That’s a very different case than on offense, where McCarthy has been extremely hands-on. It’s no secret that his background is on that side of the ball, of course.
After 19 years under Mike Tomlin, though, there will be remnants of his influence on the Steelers’ defense. That will resonate chiefly through the players, who themselves haven’t changed all that much. Where suitable, they’ve suggested Graham has been amenable to keeping certain things as they were. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say.
Not that Graham hasn’t been clear on his intention to put his own stamp on the unit. After all, he is the Steelers’ defensive coordinator, and more than at any point in a long time, that really means something. They had exalted ambitions for the defense last year, but fell woefully short. Now Mike McCarthy is tasking him to get this unit where it needs to be.
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