If the Las Vegas Raiders are indeed preparing to part ways with defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, then congratulations to the franchise for somehow finding one more creative way to self-inflict damage. At this point, the front office’s ability to trip over its own shoelaces has become less a football matter and more a performance art piece.
However, if we’re being honest, they might deserve an award for consistency. If nothing else, right?
Sports Illustrated writer and alleged insider Hondo Carpenter added more fuel to the fire this week, stating plainly, “I don’t think Patrick will be back.” That’s about as subtle as a Maxx Crosby bull rush, and Carpenter didn’t stop there. He went on to outline a relationship between Graham and the organization that reads less like a professional partnership and more like a prolonged workplace sitcom, minus the laugh track.
“I just don’t like the way this franchise has treated him,” Carpenter said. Hard to argue. The Raiders have built a reputation for finding “every which way from Tuesday to lose,” a level of dedication to maladaptive outcomes that truly sets them apart. Meanwhile, Graham, one of the few adults in the building, has become stuck in the purgatory of trying to run a modern defense inside an organization that keeps accidentally setting its own blueprints on fire.
Related: Pete Carroll’s Team Has No Accountability Left
Things reportedly worsened once Pete Carroll arrived with his trademark optimism, khakis, and heavy-handed influence over the defense. Veteran linebacker Devin White admitted as much back in September, describing the defense as caught between Carroll’s vision and Graham’s structure. When your linebackers are publicly saying two defensive-minded coaches are “clashing together” to find an identity, that’s not a schematic evolution—it’s a custody battle.
What is going on over at Raiders HQ?
And yet the Raiders seem surprised this arrangement isn’t producing elite results. Shocking.
If Graham wants to be an NFL head coach someday—and by all indications he does—staying tethered to year-after-year resets in Las Vegas is not the fastest route. No one earns league-wide respect by surviving an endless cycle of rebuilds; they earn it by escaping them.
So, if Graham leaves, it won’t be because he failed. It’ll be because he finally looked around, counted the number of fires he didn’t start, and realized there are franchises out there where defensive coordinators aren’t forced to choose between autonomy and sanity.
But if the Raiders have any common sense left—and recent history suggests that’s debatable—they would do exactly what Carpenter suggested: pay Graham, respect Graham, and maybe stop treating their most competent staffers like disposable plot devices in the ongoing soap opera that is the Las Vegas Raiders.
At some point, stability has to matter. Even in Vegas.
*Top Photo: Getty Images