Patrick Graham – May 9, 2019
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Thursday, May 9, 2019
Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham
(What were your impressions or your first thoughts when you heard DT Christian Wilkins’ name called at No. 13?) – “Excited. Just like any other draft, you’re really excited to get an opportunity to work with these guys and do your best to put them in the right spots to do well out there on the field for practice, rookie minicamp, OTAs and things of that nature. (He’s a) good kid and (I’m) just looking forward to working with him. I’m always happy when it’s a defensive pick. (laughter) I’m definitely looking forward to working with him.”
(Did you have any interaction with DT Christian Wilkins before the draft or was the first time you talked to him was afterwards?) – “We do our best to do research on all of the guys, whether it’s through the game tape, talking on the phone, the Combine or some of the trips and stuff. We get a good feel of the guys. I won’t get into any specifics per se, but we get a good feel of the guys whether it’s me specifically, the position coaches or the scouts.”
(Obviously DT Christian Wilkins has played just about every position on Clemson’s defensive line, which was a hybrid line. I guess that suits you guys well. Do you have a clear definition of what you envision him to be?) – “He was a good college football player. We’re excited about getting him here and teaching him how we want to play football and teaching him how to be a Miami Dolphin. The clear thing is I think he’s going to … Hopefully he does what we need him to do to help us win games. That’s all I can tell you on that. How that’s going to play out, we’ll see. Everybody has to earn their spot out there on that field, especially come Sundays. We’re going to try to maximize the opportunities in practice and the classroom to learn. Whatever spot he’s going to have out there on the field, it’s going to be to help us win games and he’s going to have earned it. That’s the best way I can answer that.”
(Is there a trait with DT Christian Wilkins that stands out the most that you think will help you guys win games?) – “Just like we talked about earlier in this process when you guys first met us, (we want a) selfless guy that’s going to put the team first. That’s one of the things that I’m looking for first. This level, there are a lot of good players and a lot of good athletes. (There are) a lot of guys that could be physical. (There are) a lot of guys that know how to play football. They’ve been playing it for somewhere between eight to 10 years of their life. And they get here and what’s the difference? The difference on the good teams that I’ve been on have been guys that are selfless and put the team first. That’s one of the traits that stuck out to me with them.”
(What about when you saw DT Christian Wilkins on film? What jumped out at you?) – “You can spot that on the film as well, guys that are willing to sacrifice whether it’s certain games in the pass rush, doing the dirty work to free up somebody else (or) playing double teams. Those are all of the things that as I’m watching the tape – before you meet the person and you get a chance to really truly interact with them – that’s what I’m looking for. Is this guy a selfless player that’s going to hold that double team when we need him to hold it? Is he penetrating on the game when he’s really the decoy and we’re trying to free somebody else up? You can see that on tape. He did a good job of all of that stuff. He’s a very versatile player for them. He’s a physical player. He had some good athletic traits that we look at and that we like. A lot of stuff stuck out on film. Again, we have to see how it transfers here to the league and he’ll have to earn everything on the field.”
(In this ‘look at me’ society, how tough is it to find selfless guys that are going to do jobs like that?) – “Are you implying that I’m part of this generation? (laughter) I’m not that young, but I do appreciate that. (laughter) I’m not sure. I don’t know. I’ve been coaching for 18 years now and (have worked with) different personalities. The thing that it comes down to is when they come into the classroom with us – from my experience – these guys all want to get coached, they all want to learn football and our job is to help them get better. I think it’s a privilege to be around these guys. They keep me young. I get to learn different slang and stuff like that. I’m always excited to be around them. The thing I do for them is the same thing my high school coach did for me. I’m honest with them, I give them corrections and then I let them know that I’m going to be on them all of the time until we get it right. I think those guys all cherish that at the end of the day, whether it’s this generation or the generations before. The kids are all the same still, to a certain degree.”
(The challenge of this roster, there’s not a lot of veterans. There are some but there aren’t a lot of seasoned veterans out there.) – “The production on the field is the thing we cherish the most. Whether you have 12 years in or … Nobody remembers last year anyway. Nobody cares. As long as you’re productive within the moment, that’s the stuff we cherish and that’s the stuff that gets rewarded.”
(I know you can’t address every need in the draft but from the outside, we were wondering where the pass rush was going to come from. Where is the pass rush going to come from?) – “The pass rush is going to come from us game-planning it. Just like anything we do on defense, we’re going to try to exploit the weaknesses of the offense. I think whether it’s the pass rush, whether it’s the run defense or the pass defense, those are things that we’ll do collectively, whoever is in that room. Then we’ll decide who we’re going to deploy in the different spots to work the pass rush. The beauty about the pass rush, and I’ve always said this, is it’s very fluid. Everything is very fluid. As you watch it and you try to get an understanding of it, you can take advantage of it in different ways, different shapes, different forms and different people. It doesn’t always have to be the cookie cutter idea that people have of a 6-foot-5, 250 pound whatever who runs a 4.5 (40-yard dash). That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s going to automatically guarantee you pass rush success. To me, pass rush success is us game-planning it, the players executing it and us trying our best to affect the quarterback. It doesn’t necessarily mean sacks. It means affecting the quarterback, throwing lanes, pressure, being around him (and) making him uncomfortable. All of those things go into an effective pass rush. Some of the best pass rush years I’ve coached, we didn’t have that many sacks but I know the quarterback did not feel comfortable back there when we played.”
(Do you feel like there’s enough here to get that done?) – “I always feel there’s enough. I don’t know what to tell you. I always feel like that. When me and my son go out there and we’re playing at the park, if someone wants to line up 11 against us, I feel like we’ve got enough. Let’s go! (laughter) I’m a coach. I feel like we have enough. I feel confident in our coaches to coach those guys to get things done how we want it executed and I feel confident in our players understanding the concepts, understanding what we’re trying to get done and getting 11 guys on the same page. So I always feel there’s enough.”
(Would you welcome more help though?) – “I always feel there’s enough. (laughter)”
(So you feel that DE Charles Harris is a defensive end in this scheme? Obviously you’re going to utilize him differently but he can set the edge in your opinion?) – “I never said that but I feel like Charles Harris is a versatile player in our scheme. When you watch him, there are a lot of traits that show up, whether it’s the speed, the physicality – the stuff we cherish at those positions – the edge, off the ball or inside. (There are) different ways we plan on using people. He has a lot of the traits that we cherish for defensive football players on the field.”
(There’s probably no lack of hunger on this team because guys are probably fighting for everything they’ve got. Do you sense that? How do you sense that?) – “The funny thing about the NFL is whether you are a player, coach, in personnel or whatever – I’m sure for you guys as reporters – because there’s only one football league, there’s 32 teams and they’re only in a certain number of cities, so it’s very competitive. Nobody cares what happened last year. I don’t know if it’s hunger per se, but I hope it’s a sense of urgency. You guys know. Wherever you started … I started at Wagner College and now I’m here but I could quickly be gone from here if I don’t get my job done. It’s the same thing for a beat reporter for the Miami Dolphins. It’s hard to get that job. It’s coveted because there are only 32 teams like this. I don’t know if it’s hunger but I hope it’s a sense of urgency, because I feel it every day. I love that. I love that about my job. I love the coaches holding me to that standard. I feel a sense of urgency from them. I feel a sense of urgency from my head coach. I feel a sense of urgency from my wife to get this thing done. (laughter) I like it.”
(What is it like working for a head coach that was in your position most of the time?) – “It’s been wonderful. (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores has been a dear friend. I cherish his friendship. I cherish our working relationship. He’s always been honest with me. That’s all I can tell you. He’s always been honest with me so whether I’m doing stuff good or bad or whatever, he’s been honest with me. He talks about it with the players in terms of his goal is to make them better versions of themselves. I think he does that with the people around him. I feel like a better man on and off the football field for having known him.”
(What about LB Andrew Van Ginkel, a guy you drafted later on? What have you learned about him since he’s arrived and how likely is it that we can see him contributing as a rookie, especially if you want to go with a 3-4?) – “Van Ginkel was a very successful football player at the college level. He did a lot of things on tape that we liked. What he ends up doing on the field here with the Miami Dolphins, that’s all going to be based on what he earns out there on the field. We’re going to put him in the best spots to take advantage of his physical tools and his mental capability. He’s a smart guy. We haven’t really gotten a chance to see those guys work out or anything yet. Everything starts tomorrow with rookie minicamp, but I’m looking forward to it. I don’t know where it’s going to lead to; but whatever it is, he’s going to earn it and if he’s out there on Sundays, it’s because he deserves too.”
(Let me ask you this question: You’ve got a lot of defensive tackles but no nose. You have a couple of hybrid linebackers but no real proven defensive ends unless you want to consider DE Jonathan Woodard. Where are you going to set the edge?) – “Setting the edge, there’s going to be a bunch of guys that learn to set the edge. There’s going to be a ton of guys to set the edge. You know how it is in the league. The edge comes down to this: you have to get a feel for it. The traditional edge that we grew up knowing of (the offense) lining up in two tight ends and they’re going to run outside, that doesn’t happen that often (anymore). Now they might pull outside, so that brings a whole (different) set of people over there. Setting the edge is really getting a feel for it in terms of being physical at the point (of attack and) proper angles with our bodies. We’re teaching a bunch of guys to learn how to do that. I can’t answer specifics. It could be a safety, it could be a defensive end, it could be an outside linebacker. We have plenty of guys that are learning that spot and learning how to set the edge. I think we’ll be fine. As long as they put in the work and as long as we keep guiding them in the right direction, I think we’ll be fine on that.”
(With your defensive line, you envision that you can have three 300-pounders on the front line and be able to get it done?) – “If the game plan calls for three 300-pounders, (sure). But I can’t say specifics on that. Are we going to have three 300-pounders? I don’t know. I promise you this, whoever we think is the best fit to be out there, we will have somebody responsible for setting the edge. I promise you that. Regardless of who is out on the field – 300-pounders or 200-pounders – we’ll have somebody out there to set the edge because if we don’t set the edge, it’s no different than on offense if the guy holding that ball loses that ball, it’s a problem. There’s no difference in the run game. If the guy setting the edge doesn’t set the edge, they can cut off the other guys on the defense and they can just run around the corner. Our goal is never to have that happen. I promise you that. Our goal is to never have that happen and we work diligently to get those guys to get that done. We’ll do it with whoever is there.”
(Obviously this is a different team than what we’ve seen in the past but that had been consistently the issue here, which is why they’ve had problems stopping the run for the last couple of years.) – “I can’t worry about last year. It’s this year and I know this, we’re working diligently to make sure that the edge is set. That’s just part of playing defensive football. I’m a firm believer in that in terms of defending the run game. Defending the pass game to a certain degree is still setting the edge on the quarterback. That’s something we work on every day.”
(What are your thoughts on pressure? Do you guys feel like twists and stunts are ideal as opposed to just a guy on the edge beating a man one-on-one?) – “I can’t say that. I didn’t say that. (laughter) I feel that we study … The beauty about the league is it’s about the people. We get a chance to study who this left tackle is, who this left guard and who this right guard (are). We get to study the people and then collectively how they play together. What we’re going to try to do is take advantage of their weaknesses. If they can’t handle us straight rushing, we’ll straight rush. If they can’t handle us twisting and all of that stuff, we’re going to twist. But it’s all based on who we’re going against. We do our best to teach both techniques in terms of straight rush and also with the twist game and stuff like that. It’s never a definitive. I don’t go into it (saying) this year we’re going to do this and this game we’re (going to do that). By (the time we) game plan, we will be more specific but we’re so far from that right now. I’m just trying to make sure we get in the huddle, then get in a stance, get ready and make sure that everybody knows the call. That’s what we’re working on right now.”
(How did you fall in love with football or coaching?) – “I would say this: I was flirting with football when I was 5-years old when my older brother was playing a game and they let me score. That was flirting. When did I truly fall in love with football? I would probably say after college – a year after college – when I went into football and decided to make that my career because I realized how much football had given me throughout my life. I think I cut it short. I didn’t give football enough when I was in college. I wasn’t a very good player. I don’t know how serious I was about the game but then I realized that football helped me mature when I was younger, helped me get into Yale and helped me become the man who I am today. I didn’t carry through my part of the bargain and I think every day I’m chasing that, to be honest with you, 18 years later. I think the love comes from the ups and downs from it. I don’t even know if it’s love. It’s more that I value the game, just like I’ve come to the realization that I value my wife (and) I value my mom and dad. It’s no different than a stock – up and down. I found the value in them and I think that’s a stronger word than love. That’s where I’m at now with the game. I value it so much because it’s given me so much.”
(I wanted to just ask you that a lot has been made of the 3-4 and 4-3 thing. Do you feel like it’s important for each player to have a home per se, whether it’s a three-technique player or…?) – “I don’t know about (it being) by position. I think it’s important that they know their role. They know their role and what we’ve done over the few weeks we’ve had these guys, we’ve worked on fundamentals. We’ve worked on technique. We’ve worked on the scheme. But we’ve also been like ‘based on what I’ve learned from you and what I’ve seen from you, here’s a role you can compete for. So understand your role. Now as soon as you start to get a mastery of that role, then you can start to add more valuable to yourself by understanding different roles.’ I think that’s the most important thing and that’s how I’m honest with the guys. ‘Here’s the role I see you in. Compete for that and then once you gain a mastery of that, maybe you expand your role and now you add more value to the team and then you go from there.’”
(Are those roles named roles or do you compare it to players?) – “It could be.”
(I’m not talking specifics, certainly, but would you say “Okay, you can play the LB Kyle Van Noy role or you could play this role?”) – “Well I wasn’t (in New England) with Kyle Van Noy. The roles, I’m sure they have names but I don’t know. (laughter)”
