The Mike McCarthy coaching staff is slowly coming together for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Numerous positional coaches have joined the ranks, and the defensive coordinator has officially been named.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, the selected name isn’t a great one.
Pittsburgh has turned the keys to its defense over to Patrick Graham. He has been a coordinator all around the NFL, so experience isn’t the issue. However, considering how mediocre his units have been, Steelers fans have a right to be skeptical.
It could get so bad that we are wishing for Teryl Austin to have just been brought back.
Patrick Graham’s track record has Pittsburgh Steelers fans upset at the hiring
His most recent stint in Las Vegas has been disappointing. This past year, Vegas was near the bottom of the league on defense, and we didn’t see a lot of great schemes to take advantage of the talent that they had.
The most notable name on that unit, Maxx Crosby, only notched ten sacks in 15 games. The rest of the unit posted a grand total of 36 sacks, a bad number overall. Former top pick Tyree Wilson has failed to develop under Graham as well.
The secondary was no better. Now, supporters are quick to note that he didn’t have a lot of talent to work with in Las Vegas. That’s true, but lack of talent only gets you so far. At some point, you need to develop the players that you have.
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His other stints in New York and Miami were equally bad. Again, the talent that he had to work with wasn’t elite, but that only gets you so far.
Had he produced one solid year with a bad cast, this would be a different story. At least he showed some ability to develop talent. That hasn’t been the case despite being a defensive coordinator for the past seven seasons.
While Austin has plenty of warts, and his not returning was a necessary move, it feels like Graham isn’t a major upgrade. There is nothing on paper that says he is a truly great coach.
It felt like you needed a truly great coach to offset McCarthy’s ability on offense. I don’t see that in Graham.
Time will tell if he can exceed expectations when given better talent to work with. Assuming there aren’t any major changes to the roster, this will be his best cast of defenders. That said, this feels like a letdown of a hire for the Steelers