Patrick Graham has spent much of his career proving he can make something out of almost nothing. While his defenses in Las Vegas were among the NFL’s least expensive, they rarely performed like the league’s worst. That track record is part of what made him such an attractive hire for the Pittsburgh Steelers—a team that desperately needs to improve its return on investment on that side of the ball.
Now, Graham is about to find out what an extra $100 million in defensive spending can do. That’s not an exaggeration. The Steelers have allocated almost exactly $100 million more in their defense this season than the Raiders did in Graham’s final year as defensive coordinator.
Here’s a year-by-year look at Patrick Graham’s defenses as a coordinator, including where each ranked in defensive spending and how it finished in scoring and total defense. All spending figures are from Over The Cap’s positional spending data.
Please note: OTC’s figures represent cap spending, not cash spending. Cap spending can vary significantly based on contract structures, restructures, and other mechanisms, so it is not a perfect measure of actual investment. However, it still provides a useful comparison of the resources allocated to each defense, and it is clear that Graham’s previous units operated with far fewer resources than Pittsburgh’s current group.
In fact, if we look at current cash spending, the disparity is even more dramatic. The Raiders spent $43.13 million last year, according to Spotrac. The Steelers are projected to have $172.13 million in 2026, and that could increase with deals for Joey Porter Jr. and/or Keeanu Benton.
On average, Patrick Graham’s seven defenses before joining the Steelers ranked 23.1st in the NFL in spending. To put that into perspective, Pittsburgh’s current EDGE group alone has more money invested in it than three entire defenses Graham coached. While the salary cap has naturally grown over time, the comparison still highlights just how different Graham’s circumstances are in Pittsburgh.
His inexpensive defenses have bottomed out a couple times, like in 2019 with the Dolphins and 2022 with the Raiders, but that is what you’d expect from some of the league’s cheapest units. What is highly unusual are the years where he well outperformed the price tag. The best example was in 2023 when the Raiders had the second cheapest defense in the NFL and finished with a top 10 scoring defense and top half total defense.
Graham has spent his career proving he can get a beat-up car running better than expected. Now, the Steelers are handing him something closer to a Ferrari. The question is whether his ability to maximize limited resources translates when he finally has the high-end parts to work with.
Last year, Pittsburgh well underperformed expectations. If Patrick Graham can make the Ferrari hum, the Steelers may be in for a special 2026 season.