The New York Giants officially announced the hire of Patrick Graham as their defensive coordinator/assistant head coach on Friday night, which ushers in his second stint with the team.
From 2016-2017, Graham served as the Giants’ defensive line coach before departing as the Pat Shurmur era arrived in town. He went on to coach linebackers and handle the run game in Green Bay in 2018 and then coached the defense in Miami last season.
Now back with Joe Judge, who he served alongside in New England, Graham looks forward to establishing a defensive culture that is defined by toughness and physicality.
“We want to be a smart, tough and physical team,” Graham said in Giants.com interview. “Don’t beat ourselves. Play with good discipline. Reflect people of the New York area in terms of [being] blue collar — just go out there and work hard.
“The biggest thing I want [the players to do] is get better every day. And what we see on the field, I think, will be a reflection of that. And that will come through the fundamentals — block destruction, pad level, playing with our hands in front of our eyes, playing with good knee bend. Those are the things that we’re going to focus on. I think if we get better at that every day, it will lead to positive gains on the field.”
As far as his planned scheme, Graham sounded forward-thinking, not boxing himself into a 4-3 or a 3-4, which the team primarily played under James Bettcher. Rather, he is open to multiple fronts based on the personnel that is on the field at any given time.
“The scheme is going to be based on the [personnel],” Graham said. “You can anticipate it being multiple. . . People ask if it’ll be 4-3 or 3-4, and I say yes. 2-4? Yes. 3-3-5? Yes. However you want to rearrange the front 7 or all 11, yes.”
Ultimately, Graham says, a successful defense is less about how a team lines up and more about how they play fundamentally.
“It comes down to the fundamentals in terms of stopping the run, setting the edge and building the wall,” Graham said. “So, it doesn’t matter how the people are lined up. When the ball is snapped, we have to build the wall and set the edge. You can set an edge from a 3-4, you can set an edge from a 4-3.
“Passing game… You have to make sure you’re playing with leverage. So whether it’s Cover 1, 3, 2, whatever it may be, we have to win our leverage and defend the deep part of the field. And after that, you have to tackle.
“If everyone understands the fundamentals, what we’re trying to do and who we’re trying to take away, then how we deploy the guys in terms of the structure of the defense. . . It’s not irrelevant, but we can figure that out.”
[lawrence-related id=638695,638538,638510]