Among all of the sweeping changes for the Pittsburgh Steelers is new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. Recently, our Alex Kozora wrote The Big Book Of Patrick Graham, a thorough scope of his resume that you should definitely check out. Included, we looked at Graham’s “open field” (non-redzone) base coverage rates from his time as DC for the Las Vegas Raiders (2022-25). Today, I wanted to dive into the quality of those groups as well.

After compiling all of the data, here is a scatter plot of total snaps and average passer rating against rankings over the span for Graham, and Pittsburgh for context:

Great context to the schemes from each team the past four seasons. In that span, the best overall result was Pittsburgh in Cover 3, leading the field in snaps and the only top 10 average ranking. The good news is Cover 3 is also the scheme Graham deployed most, but had a noticeably lower average passer rating against rank of 19th over the last four seasons.

So it’s reasonable to expect the Cover 3 scheme to be Pittsburgh’s primary coverage. Many would agree that the talent on Pittsburgh’s defensive roster is an improvement from those Raiders teams and will hopefully aid better quality for Graham in his new Steelers gig.

Pittsburgh also ran a lot of Cover 1 over the span, over 150 snaps more than Graham’s defenses. They were both below average in the passer ratings against, though, so that will be interesting to monitor moving forward.

In fact, the only coverage scheme that Graham’s defenses posted an above average passer rating against was 2 man, with an average ranking of 13th. The snap total was only 57 (across four seasons), so certainly a quality over quantity affair. Pittsburgh also fared well in the scheme, ranking 12th at more than double the snaps (143).

As expected, Pittsburgh defenses had more above-average rankings across the board. Top 15 ranks included Cover 3 (8.3), Cover 4 (12th), 2 Man (12th), and Cover 2 (15th). So the majority of their best success came in zone coverages.

Let’s look at Graham’s schemes that were above the snaps mean. Cover 2, 3 and 4 make his list as well. If history is any indication, Pittsburgh will likely continue be in zone a lot, where they’ve been most successful. It aligns well.

Cover 1 was Graham’s other above the mean scheme, also true for Pittsburgh who ran it over 150 more snaps with less overall success. It seems Pittsburgh’s second most common coverage scheme the last four years (by far) could also improve under Graham.

So, recent history shows us that Pittsburgh has leaned on the following schemes most: Cover 3 (top 10 ranking), Cover 1 (below the mean), and Cover 2 (above average). Graham defenses were also above the snap mean for all three, along with Cover 4. But the quality of each were below the mean in average passer rating against.

Seeing more varied coverages from Graham could be an attractive part of how things could look in Pittsburgh. Not having the best personnel in Las Vegas is important to factor when accounting for the passer rating against rankings, and Graham was handed the keys to a better defense on paper.

I can’t wait to see if that leads to better quality for Graham with the Steelers.