Raheem Morris doesn’t like it when people say that he had to wait a long time to get a second chance at a head coaching job. The Falcons head coach and former Rams DC told The Athletic’s Robert Mays this week that it would be “so selfish” to say that he waited for this opportunity when he already had one when he was 32.
It seems like the 15 years between jobs ended up as perfect timing for Morris, as his previous stint with Atlanta as assistant head coach and winning a Super Bowl in L.A. as the defensive coordinator has made him and the Falcons a perfect fit right now. And Morris gives a lot of credit to the team of Sean McVay and Les Snead in preparing him for a second opportunity and realizing the importance of cohesiveness between coach and GM.
On his past as the head coach of the Buccaneers for three years, Morris mentions that he and general manager Mark Dominik “did not collaborate enough” and that they had different points of view on how to win, how to talk to ownership, and how to talk to the people in the building.
And by the way, it’s a lot better to be a fired head coach than a fired GM. Morris has been able to continue his NFL career, Dominik has been out of the NFL since 2013.
Now Morris is collaborating with GM Terry Fontenot, but was everyone on the same page about signing Kirk Cousins and drafting Michael Penix? Already that’s a move that feels like it’s “one for the owner, one for the coach” instead of necessarily being what’s best for the franchise. But perhaps that narrative will prove an overreaction.
Back on the topic of joining the Rams in 2021, Morris says that he benefited from being able to witness McVay’s success with the team before he got there from the outside and then to have the head coach and GM actually show him all the gears behind the scenes that led to so many wins. Morris calls Snead “a nerd who just wants to watch football, study players, and be great”, and McVay also a “nerd” who just wanted to call plays and coach football. That the two have “great conversations” by bouncing ideas off each other until they agreed on the best path forward.
