Before Patrick Graham was named the defensive coordinator in Las Vegas, the Raiders had one of the worst defenses in the NFL for over two decades. In the 19 seasons prior to his arrival, the team only finished in the top 20 for scoring defense on one occasion and for total yardage allowed five times.
Part of the issue in the late 2010s was Paul Guenther, who the team hired to be their defensive coordinator under Jon Gruden. Once he was fired in 2021, he failed to find his footing again in the NFL as a coordinator. However, on Friday, the University of Nevada - Las Vegas football team announced that they were bringing Guenther on board as an associate head coach and safeties coach.
Guenther worked for the Dallas Cowboys last season as the defensive run game coordinator under Mike McCarthy but was not retained by new head coach Brian Schottenheimer. While he has not coached at the college level since 2000, UNLV tabbed him on Friday in hopes of adding more experience to their coaching staff.
In his three seasons with the Raiders, Guenther's defense was among the worst in the league. The unit had a bottom-30 scoring defense in two of his three years, including a dead-last finish in 2018, and the team only cracked the top 20 in total yardage allowed one time.
While he did have success early in his career as a defensive coordinator for the Bengals under Marvin Lewis, NFL offenses seemingly figured out Guenther's defense within a few years. For UNLV's sake, let's hope that the 53-year-old coach can perform better at Allegiant Stadium than he did in 2020 with the Raiders.
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This story was originally published March 9, 2025 at 1:55 PM.