New Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham says building a new defense 'takes time'
Jarren Williams during practice Aug. 18,2020. Credit: Matthew Swersen / New York Giants
Joe Judge recently raved about the job Patrick Graham did transforming the Dolphins' defense throughout the course of last season. He noted in particular how Miami was able to beat New England, 27-24, in Week 17.
“I’ve seen his guys in live action,” Judge said, having been on the sideline with the Patriots for that game. “I’ve seen him play with practice squad players and get them to the level of being NFL, on the field, gameday players and beat us.”
It gives the entire Giants organization hope that the same thing can happen here.
But somewhat overlooked in Judge’s parable is the detail of where those Dolphins began. In Week 2 last season, the Patriots trounced them 43-0.
With the 2020 regular season beginning in less than three weeks for the Giants and a number of young players adjusting to a new system and new responsibilities and a new philosophy, it’s a stark reminder of where their journey might begin. And it is something Graham, now the defensive coordinator for the Giants, admits he is a bit worried about.
“I wake up in the morning and I’m like, ‘I don’t know if there are enough hours in the day to get done what I want to get done,’” Graham said on Tuesday. “We have to be ready to go for Pittsburgh [on Sept. 14]. Do I feel the urgency of that? Absolutely. Less than 20 days and here we go, we’re playing one of the best teams in the world. I get it. There’s some urgency there.
“But,” Graham said, “you have to trust the process.”
And if that process includes getting run over by the Steelers and struggling through the early stages of this season in order to get to the point where the Dolphins were in their Week 17 game against the Patriots last year, so be it.
That’s what the Giants organization bought when they hired Joe Judge and his crew in the offseason, recognizing that the vision would require patience. It’s not to say no one wants to beat the Steelers and roll through the schedule and hoist a trophy come February. But it does mean there likely will be obstacles and learning curves that get in the way of those goals. For now.
“We know what we want it to look like and we’re trying to build toward that,” Graham said. “It takes time. To be honest with you, it takes time.”
The turnaround in Miami, Graham said, was part of the vision of their coach, Brian Flores. It started, much as it has here, with the basics. Then, as the season went along, he began to introduce concepts and theories to the players so that they could begin to function on their own. So that they became thinking players.
“If it’s third-and-7, does it matter what I call or does it matter that we know who they are throwing the ball to?” he asked. “Just like anything, when you are teaching young players, inexperienced players, they need to experience that in order for them to grow and utilize their tools. They make all the decisions out there on the field. It’s split-second decisions . . . and you just try to do your best job to get them ready for those moments.”
Those moments are closing in on the Giants. Each one that passes is another one closer to Ben Roethlisberger trying to pick them apart. And Graham, who knows “it takes time” to put it all together (he used that phrase at least a half-dozen times on Tuesday) and is also dealing with a truncated preseason with no game opportunities, wakes up each morning with less of it.
“Yeah, we’ve got 20 days left to do it,” he said. “We have to figure it out. In this league, if you don’t feel a sense of urgency every day, you’ll get passed by.”
When Judge told that tale of the 2019 Dolphins, he eventually brought it back to the Giants.
“To me, it’s not what you are right now,” he said. “It’s where you’re building toward.”
For the Giants, that goal is well beyond Sept. 14.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
