Patrick Graham Puts Raiders Defense on Notice With Fiery Message: ‘I’m so Tired’

The Las Vegas Raiders‘ coaching staff has been a revolving door at most positions, but one person who has stuck around is defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. He’s survived three different regimes, and this is just his fourth season with the team.

There have been times when Graham has had the Raiders’ defense playing a very high level, but things are off to a tough start this season. The Raiders currently have a -6 turnover differential, which is the second-worst in the NFL.

It doesn’t help that quarterback Geno Smith leads the NFL with nine interceptions, but the Las Vegas defense only has four takeaways on the season. Graham appears to be getting frustrated with the continued struggles on defense for the Raiders.

He had a stern message for his defense ahead of the Week 6 game against the Tennessee Titans.

“I’m so tired — I’m trying to be mindful of my language — of talking about whatever it is we got to do,” Graham said during a Thursday press conference. “You just have to make it happen. You got to take the ball away. However it happens, that’s what we got to do.”

Graham Talks Replacing Germaine Pratt

Before the Raiders’ Week 5 game against the Colts, it was revealed that linebacker Germaine Pratt wasn’t traveling with the team. It didn’t take long for the team to announce that he was being released.

It’s still not clear exactly what happened, but it couldn’t have been performance-related, as Pratt was playing well for the team. For his part, Graham didn’t sound thrilled that he would no longer have Pratt to use and spoke about how the defense could go about replacing him.

“I’m looking forward to the defense stepping up, just in general,” Graham said. “Just the linebacker position, you know, it’s going to take all 11 out there. We’ll see who’s out there playing and things of that nature, but it’s going to take a, you know, good effort to replace a good player like that.”

Brian Callahan Talks Raiders Reunion

The Raiders host the Titans and head coach Brian Callahan in Week 6. Notably, Callahan was the team’s quarterback coach in 2018 and is the son of Bill Callahan, who is the last Raiders head coach to win a playoff game.

Callahan has fond memories of the Raiders and is looking forward to coaching against his former team.

“We’ve got a lot of Raiders on our staff,” Callahan said, via Raiders.com. “A lot of guys that have spent a lot of time there. I was in high school when my dad was there. They had a lot of success over those years and those were my first – I was a fan. I was a fan of the team. I was always excited to go. It was great environments to go play in when they were at the Coliseum in Oakland. Then I got a chance to go coach there for a year. I have fond memories in that silver and black and those gamedays and some of the wins over the years when I was following along as a high school kid and spending time there.”

Browns naming Shedeur Sanders QB2 unlikely to change playing situation

After it was announced that rookie third-round pick Dillon Gabriel had officially been named the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback, there were a lot of questions about why fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders wasn’t moving up the depth chart, as well.

With only two healthy quarterbacks on the roster, though, head coach Kevin Stefanski told the media that Sanders would be the primary backup.

Browns had good reason to keep Shedeur Sanders low on the depth chart

We covered the reason that Sanders hadn’t been named QB2 when team’s initial starter Joe Flacco was demoted. Essentially, Cleveland didn’t want Sanders’ introduction to the NFL to be him running an offensive game plan designed for a shorter, shiftier, left-handed quarterback in a desperation setting.

Not wanting to see Sanders struggle early, the Browns resolved to keep him off the field unless he was ready to run a game plan designed around his capabilities.

This thought process led the team to keep Flacco ahead of Sanders on the depth chart, thinking that Flacco’s leadership and experience would make him more well-suited to the uncomfortable situation of running an unfamiliar offensive game plan than Sanders. But then, a surprise trade removed Flacco as an option as he made his way southwest to Cincinnati.

Even with Flacco out of the picture, though, the Browns weren’t quite ready to commit to naming Sanders the primary backup behind Gabriel, likely for the same reason as previously mentioned. The primary Browns starter, Deshaun Watson, remains on the reserve/physically unable to perform list, where he’s likely to remain as he recovers from multiple tears to his Achilles tendon, but there was one other option.

Browns were considering another QB to be No. 2

Practice squad quarterback Bailey Zappe was the other name in consideration for the QB2 role. Zappe started eight games over his first two years in the league with the Patriots and even got a start in Cleveland last year. While he may not give the Browns a better chance at winning than Sanders, his use as a backup would protect Sanders from having to run Gabriel’s offense in his first NFL snaps.

Ultimately, Sanders got the job. It’s hard to say whether it was Sanders who advocated to play regardless of the offensive game plan or if the coaches resolved finally to just put their best arms on the field. Regardless, the first man off the bench behind Gabriel will be his draft classmate taken two rounds later.

Dillon Gabriel's starting job not in jeopardy

Gabriel shouldn’t have to worry about his own job, though. According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Gabriel is expected to get a pretty “lengthy run” as the starter. Even with Sanders rising in the ranks behind him, Gabriel should have a fairly long lead with which he can find his sea legs. Sanders may get a run of his own down the line, but for now, he’ll be available off the sideline in case of injury.

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