Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham rises again as head-coaching candidate
Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham says it's the last time some of the players will be on a football field on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
TAMPA, Fla.
The Giants’ defense has broken out of its early-season lethargy with a month’s worth of fine work, and Patrick Graham’s standing in the NFL coaching fraternity is climbing again.
He was on the radar for some NFL head-coaching vacancies last offseason — the Jets had interest — but his preference was to remain with the Giants for at least one more season.
His name again is surfacing now that we’re past the halfway mark of the regular season and the coaching carousel is about to start spinning. But before anyone gets too far, Graham isn’t ready to look beyond the next game — in this case, Monday night’s matchup with the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers and Tom Brady.
Besides, Graham knows how uncertain things can be for a man in his position. He mentioned as much when asked if he has heard the buzz about potential opportunities for 2022.
"The ‘Pat Graham, get fired’ buzz was starting, too," he cracked, referring to the sluggish start from his defense this season after a mostly exemplary performance in 2020. "I don’t even think about that."
But if the Giants do a credible job against Brady, especially if they pull off an upset, Graham will continue to be mentioned as the answer for a team looking for a new head coach.
It’s too soon to start connecting the dots, because we don’t know which or how many openings will surface. But Graham might not be in a position to wait that much longer before moving on.
"I’m a New York Giant. I love being a New York Giant," he said. "This is my dream job to be here representing this organization for the people. The head coach [Joe Judge] is one of my best friends. The ownership, the fact that the people I learned football from are New York Giants — I couldn’t ask for a better situation. I could [not] care less about that stuff."
That stuff, of course, is speculation about Graham’s potential as a head coach. He’s certainly on a track to at least earn consideration for a top job, and given the constant churn of coaching changes, it stands to reason that he’ll be in the mix again.
That hasn’t been the case, however, for the coordinator Graham will face off against Monday night. Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, a former quarterback for the Jaguars who has done fine work as a coach in Tampa and Arizona, didn’t get a sniff in last year’s hiring cycle.
Bucs coach Bruce Arians called that "a farce," given Leftwich’s excellence in helping Brady’s remarkable transition last year in his first season away from the Patriots. Brady, of course, deserves the overwhelming share of the credit for the team’s Super Bowl run, but he says Leftwich was a key part of his success.
Like Graham, Leftwich hasn’t expressed an interest in going elsewhere.
"I am not trying to leave this group that I have," he told reporters in the offseason. "I enjoy working with this group of men to come to work with every day, the way they come to work. As a coach, you beg and wish that you coach guys like this. So I’m in no rush to leave this group of men."
Arians, however, is interested in seeing Leftwich continue to climb the coaching ladder. He also is not willing to overlook the NFL’s spotty record on hiring minority head coaches (Leftwich and Graham are Black). Last year, two of seven openings — including the Jets with Robert Saleh — went to minority candidates.
"I was very [angry] that Byron didn’t at least get an interview this year," Arians said during the offseason. "I think I get way too much credit and so does Tom Brady for the job that Byron has done. Hopefully next year, people will see that he took Jameis Winston and broke every single record here, scoring and passing, and Tom has broken both. He’s done a fantastic job. He’s everything supposedly what people are looking for."
Maybe after watching the two coordinators go against each other Monday night, more teams will give them the opportunities they have earned.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
