The Pittsburgh Steelers are close to hiring longtime coach Patrick Graham as their new defensive coordinator. Per the PPG’s Gerry Dulac, the hire is imminent.

New Steelers coach Mike McCarthy is close to bringing in Patrick Graham as his defensive coordinator, per sources. Graham, 47, was defensive coordinator the past three seasons with the Raiders. He also served in that role with the Dolphins (2019) and Giants (2020-21).

— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) January 28, 2026

Graham and Washington Commanders pass game coordinator Jason Simmons interviewed for the job. That fulfilled the Rooney Rule requiring interviews with two minority candidates.

Update (4:35 PM): Per The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo, Graham will officially interview tomorrow. Seemingly, a hire could happen as soon as it concludes.

The Steelers are bringing in Vegas DC Patrick Graham for an interview tomorrow, per multiple sources.

He has 17 years of NFL experience, including the last 7 as a DC. A well-respected defensive mind, he’s worked under and borrowed from Belichick, Spagnuolo, Flores and others.

— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) January 28, 2026

Assuming the deal is finalized, he’ll be Mike McCarthy’s second known hire behind Adam Henry as the team’s new wide receivers coach.

McCarthy and Graham have connections. In 2018, McCarthy hired Graham to be the Green Bay Packers’ linebackers coach and run game coordinator. While Green Bay struggled to a six-win season in which McCarthy was fired in early December, its run defense finished a respectable 13th in yards per carry allowed.

Graham, 47, was previously the Las Vegas Raiders’ defensive coordinator from 2022-2025. There, his units struggled to find success. Only once in those four seasons did the Raiders finish better than 25th in scoring defense. In 2025, the unit ranked exactly 25th in points allowed at 25.4 per game. But the unit had limited talent, a poor offense, and did better to limit yards allowed. Over the past two seasons, Las Vegas ranked 15th and 14th in total yardage.

His best year came in 2023. The Raiders finished ninth in scoring defense and 15th in yards in an 8-9 season. Young players Graham has coached along the way include LB Divine Deablo, CB Nate Hobbs, S Tre’von Moerhig, DT Thomas Booker, and S Isaiah Pola-Mao, who is Troy Polamalu’s nephew.

Perhaps the best sign of Graham’s time in Las Vegas is that he survived three coaching staff changes. Hired by Josh McDaniels in 2022, Antonio Pierce and Pete Carroll opted to keep him onboard during their tenures. With Carroll dismissed after 2025 and the Raiders still without a head coach, Graham would be an easy to hire even in a lateral move.

A former defensive lineman at Yale, Graham embarked on his coaching career in 2002 as a graduate assistant at Wagner. In 2004, he was named the defensive line coach at Richmond and for the following two years, coached tight ends. In 2007, he became a graduate assistant at Notre Dame before returning as a d-line coach at Toledo in 2009.

Graham broke into the NFL in 2009 as a coaching assistant under Bill Belichick. In 2011, he was named the New England Patriots’ linebackers coach. In 2012, Graham was moved to defensive line coach before switching back to linebackers in 2014. During his Patriots tenure, he coached and developed the likes of linebackers Jerod Mayo and Dont’a Hightower along with DE Chandler Jones.

In 2016, Graham was named the New York Giants’ defensive line coach. There, Jason Pierre-Paul continued his success and Oliver Vernon made a Pro Bowl. After his stint with McCarthy in Green Bay, Graham received his first coordinator role in 2019 under Brian Flores and the Miami Dolphins. But Miami’s defense bottomed out to worst in the NFL, ranking 32nd in scoring defense. The unit didn’t fare much better in yards (30th) or takeaways (28th). He was fired after one season.

Returning to the Giants as an assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for the next two seasons, Graham led New York to a top-10 scoring unit in 2020. The group finished 12th in yards and 10th in takeaways with CB James Bradberry making the Pro Bowl and DT Leonard Williams breaking out with a career-high 11.5 sacks. But in 2021, the unit regressed to a 23rd-place finish.

Graham’s results as a defensive coordinator aren’t gaudy. But he’s a well-respected mind and comes with plenty of experience in the role. One key question will be the Steelers’ defensive structure though McCarthy said yesterday that they will continue working out of a base 3-4 alignment. In the past, Graham has repeatedly deflected the question and pointed to a goal of being multiple with lines blurred between even and odd fronts.

“So, to me the 4-3/3-4 discussions is almost like it’s antiquated, to be honest with you,” he said in 2022 via Raiders Wire. “What you’re talking about sub-defense do you have guys that can rush the passer? Yes. Do you have guys that can stop the run? Yes. Do you have guys that can cover, that have shown they can cover in the past? Yes. So, those are the three major things I’m looking for aside from tackling, so, yeah, I’m good with that.”

In Las Vegas, the Raiders often played “big nickel” with a third corner on the field. For much of that time, CB Nate Hobbs held that role. Perhaps Pittsburgh will adopt some of the same under Graham. We’ll offer a deeper dive into his philosophy in the days ahead.