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.”

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The New York Giants are set to hire Patrick Graham as their new defensive coordinator. He is another name from the Bill Belichick coaching tree who is a Yale graduate that spent seven years on Belichick’s staff between 2009-2016 in various roles coaching the defense.

In 2016, Giants incoming head coach Ben McAdoo brought Graham aboard to oversee the defensive line. When McAdoo was canned in 2017, Graham, like most of the staff, went with him.

In 2018, Graham worked as the Green Bay Packers linebackers coach before taking the defensive coordinator job in Miami last year under first-year head coach Brian Flores, another Belichick disciple.

Now, with Joe Judge at the helm here in New York, Graham has agreed to return, but he may not be what Giant fans were hoping for after two miserable years under James Bettcher.

From SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano:

Whether the 40-year-old is up to the job remains to be seen. Last year was his first as a defensive coordinator and the Dolphins finished 30th overall in team defense rankings. In fairness to him, he was handed a roster that many thought was set up for tanking for a high draft pick. It was young, underwhelming and usually out-manned.

The fact that Dolphins head coach Brian Flores had no issue letting the Giants poach Graham could be alarming. Or it could just be a sign of a young coach who wanted to head in a different direction.

Graham will be charged with further developing the Giants’ pass rush and coverage schemes. He will also have to simplify things so that the many young and inexperienced players on defense can forge some semblance of cohesion. Far too often in 2019, the defense looked confused and disorganized allowing big, backbreaking plays.

It will be up to Graham finally put the Giants’ defense back on the map. The good thing about Graham is that he’s never out of a job long. He’s respected around the league. But is he the answer here in New York?

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It looks like Joe Judge has picked someone to run the defense of the New York Giants in 2020.

Less than 24 hours after the first reports came out of possible interest, the Giants appear set to tab Patrick Graham as their next defensive coordinator.

The #Giants are hiring Patrick Graham as their defensive coordinator, source said.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 12, 2020

Graham is coming over from the Miami Dolphins, where he served as the defensive coordinator under Brian Flores. Both Flores and Graham were assistant coaches on the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick.

That same connection with Flores is what Graham had with Judge, as they too were both on the same staff on the Patriots under Belichick for several years.

Before running the defense in Miami, Graham spent two seasons as the Giants defensive line coach under Ben McAdoo from 2016-2017. After McAdoo’s staff was dismissed following the 2917 season, Graham spent one season with the Green Bay Packers as the linebackers coach and run game coordinator.

Graham replaces James Bettcher, who served as the Giants defensive coordinator over the last two seasons under Pat Shurmur, but was not expected back once Shurmur was dismissed on Black Monday.