Patrick Graham has not always enjoyed the best timing in his NFL coaching career.

He was hired by Ben McAdoo as the Giants’ defensive line assistant in 2016 and was gone from the team not long after McAdoo was fired before the end of the 2017 season. Graham landed in Green Bay in 2018 but lasted only one year with the Packers, when Mike McCarthy and his staff were let go following that season.

Graham, the Giants defensive coordinator, made an impression on McCarthy in their brief time together.

“Patrick has a very bright future, in my opinion,’’ said McCarthy, now the Cowboys head coach. “What I enjoyed about Patrick from the interview process was his intelligence, his intensity and really just his passion and respect for the game of football. He goes about it the right way, he’s going to challenge you schematically, but at the end of the day, the true mark of a good football coach is how your team plays the fundamentals, the technique, and I think he’s doing an excellent job.’’

For the Giants to have a shot at extending their season, they must beat the Cowboys on Sunday, pitting McCarthy’s offense against Graham’s defense.

“I think the first thing that jumps off the tape is the volume, particularly in their defensive front,’’ McCarthy said. “Patrick’s an excellent football coach, very bright, but he is a fundamentalist — you can see it in their technique and in the way they play, their play style.’’

The Packers went 6-9-1 in 2018 to end McCarthy’s 13-year run as the head coach. Graham that season was the linebackers coach and run-game coordinator.

“Coach McCarthy, I had a great time with him in Green Bay,’’ Graham said. “We didn’t win a lot of games, but I had a lot of respect for him. He’s a very smart man, good football man. The big thing for me is how he sees the run game in terms of the necessities of the run game. The necessity of a certain amount of carries. Seeing the correlation between the run game and success.’’

Before he arrived with the Packers, Graham figured McCarthy was more of a pass-first offensive mind, considering Aaron Rodgers was there and the ball was often in the air.

“You think about, all those years from afar, Aaron Rodgers, Mike McCarthy,’’ Graham said. “You’re thinking pass game, pass game. You can go back to 2016 when we [Giants] lost in the playoff game. It was because the run game when they got in 20 personnel, it was the third quarter. They hit a couple runs, they were backed up. It’s the run game where I really think he stands out. Not to discredit what he knows about the passing game, that’s obvious. I think you see the influence there. Dallas has always been able to run the ball. The timing of it, that’s what stands out to me.’’