PATRICK GRAHAM GIVES DEEP DIVE ON CHARGERS, HERBERT, "SMART" JIM HARBAUGH & MORE FOR RAIDERS WEEK 1

how do you kind of prepare for team person uh you know first of off thank thank you for being here good to see you guys been a while thing that you do in terms of preparing look at the Players first you know the NFL is about the players pay attention to those guys see then you look at the scheme next and see what's changed I know they brought a lot of energy there and particularly for my side of the ball I'm dealing with on offense you know Roman does a great job of me hav been lucky against them two times I faced them as a a play caller and they do a great job you know there's going to be an element of toughness that's through the head coach that's through their their coaching staff and you know the players are really you can see they're buying into the culture that they're trying to bring there you can see it on tape you know the toughness uh the you know one the run the ball and you hear it throughout the interviews and hear them talk about it so I'm sure they're happy with it and they're probably just as excited as us for the game on Sunday now that you've had him here for a few months I know you've coached him in the past specifically with the Raiders Christian Wilkins what sort of impact has he had for you guys on the defensive line you know he's a great leader I think he was a leader when he was a rookie you know in his own way you know and now he's had you know he's had success in this league and you can see his leadership skills just how he's matured not just he was immature before but how he's matured over time and I know this the players gravitate to him coaching staff gravitates to him and he's doing a good job for us and you know I'm sure he's excited yesterday Christian said that there's a good Synergy building between the defensive unit what have you seen out of the cohesion of your guys and how they're really picking up things this year Synergy and cohesion you know I like cohesion Synergy I've never been a fan of that word just never been a fan but um they spend a lot of time together and they have honest conversations with one another I think I know that we've done a better job as coaches of getting to know them in terms of I know I have I can speak for myself personally more time with them you know whether it's in the calf whether it's just sending more text whatever it is and thing I think the reason why we have the cohesion and the word you use is because we spend a lot of time talking to each other and we're honest with one another obviously APS has some familiarity with him and also you coached him in New York during homes what went into the thought process of bringing him in and what do you think about him as a player that would be specifically you have to ask Tom and AP but welcome for good players you know and the fact that he has a familiarity with our defense that helps and I've known him since he was a rookie he's a smart diligent worker works hard out there on the field can tackle can cover can do a bunch of things play special teams so you know all that stuff in terms of the checklist I just went through I mean that that's a good defensive football player you like to have those guys around mentioned uh you know Co Coach Harbaugh been talking a lot about running the ball he's known for his team's kind of being run first what do you think of that approach uh in today's game where it's thought of as a past league First and what's kind of going to be the keys for the the defense to have success uh in the run defense I think it's smart I think it's smart you look like you know all the teams that win it comes down to whether you want to start at the beginning of the Season how you trying to establish your identity during training camp or when you get to the money games like the championship games the Super Bowl you got to be able to run the ball you're not going to be able to advance in January without being able to run the ball so I think a smart decision to make sure that's at the Forefront of what they're talking about because if you can't stop the run on defense I mean it's going to be a long day I mean then the coordinator can call it anything that's like that's the worst fear as a defensive play caller but I think it's smart and in order to be tough you gotta be able to run the ball you gota be able to stop the ball so I know toughness is a big part of what they're trying to they're they're preaching and that makes sense to me and he's been successful doing it like T took a big step forward last year and we've seen him make a lot of plays and you know training camp in the preseason this year what do you think's going into that Ascension for him as as a young player like most professional athletes they make a decision again he can learn about the curl flat on all 32 teams you learn about playing manto man coverage on all 32 I mean we're not doing rocket science here I mean like you know may may a little tweak here and there but it's the personal decision to say okay I'm a professional uh football player really don't have anything else to to do I don't have school work to worry about you know I all I got to do is get better at my craft and that's a decision those guys make on their own and I'm just proud of how um how he's progressed throughout the years I've been around him and looking forward to seeing him play Sunday PR what do you think like he's in your opinion where do you think he's made the biggest strides in this in this game uh communication we just had a walk through just now and you know just for him to correct somebody without hesitation wasn't waiting for a coach to do it just went over there and did that I I love seeing stuff like that because for whatever reason it brings you back to like you know maybe something earlier when in the process like two years ago so that's always cool for me I tell him all the time I said you know you guys make my day you know keep me young you make my day when little moments like that was probably nothing to him but it was a big deal to me how much of a luxury is it I guess to have seven line on 53 I like having seven good football players it could be linebackers dline whatever you know um I don't know if it's a luxury I just like having good football players so you know again the roster how it's constructed that's between Tom and AP and the more good football players we have the better off will be and I love having it gives you some variety I guess how's that cohesion between the linebackers it's good that mean that that I mean you got spill as your leader and Diablo in there those are pretty good leaders right there good communicators I'm sure they eat and hang out with one another and things of that nature out there on the field they have to talk by by Nature they got to talk because they're playing the linebacker position they have to talk to one another but I'm not going to keep using let me but you didn't say something we're going overboard with this two more guys coach he doesn't get talk about much but he's coming off one of the best seasons of his career what is next in your opinion for John jins improve every day 1% you know just try to get better every day you know again John's a professional he's been here doing it for a long time I bet you that's all he's worried he's worried about winning on Thursday today you know anytime you know we have personal goals I'm sure I don't never share my personal goals with you guys I'm sure he's not going to share his personal goals with you but really the main thing is just to get better every day that's all I can ask those guys to do so you know we got Thursday practice we're focused on third down and early down and we'll see we'll go from there so two more Adam I assume uh when you watch a lot of Greg Roman offense the past as you said you've gone against there's been a lot of mobile quarterbacks Jus isn't necessar known for that but it's capable of it I guess how do you factor in whether he might be used more in the Run game what they to do with it I mean just refer back to the third down in nine last year he took off so he looks very mobile to me so that again y'all ask me this all the time I factor in everything don't have anything else to do yeah I mean he can move he can move so I mean got we got to prepare for everything I I don't know what they're going to do that's the beauty of week one you know a little angst you know anxiety you know nervousness whatever you want to call it but that's the beauty of week one everybody's going through it right now you know the game tonight they're going through it they don't know what they're going to do but you know we get to play football Antonio took over last year there was like a really marked increas in improv play on the defense I'm wondering this year how do you plan to build on that it seems like this year's narrative is that the defense is the team also in that as well I don't get caught up in narratives the thing I try to do and I live my life by this is just try to get better every day and because of last year I mean last year was last year maybe it gives us a starting point in terms of uh communication cohesion last time I'm using it okay but um in terms of for 20124 we had to start from ground zero in terms of getting you know our fundamentals schematically what we're going to do you know I think going into this year it's all going to be based on how we perform and how we prepare and practice and how we perform on Sunday that's that's the only way we're going to be judged nobody's gonna care soon as Sunday happen nobody cares about last year nobody cares what have you seen from Jack Jones in the training camp preseason first that next step you know I I was always impressed by his athleticism so you know that was god-given there in terms of his football IQ you can see it starting to grow more and more as he gets more play play under his belt I think just that position right there you're just going to be able to see more you see the combinations you get familiar because all the receivers are all the same receivers aside from the rookies they're all the same receivers so you get familiar with those guys and then once you figure that out and you're able to communicate because now you can say hey they are in this split hey it is him stacked behind there it's just reminders to your brain for your muscle memory to kick in to be able to play faster so you're seeing that cool all right