National Football League

Falcons’ Raheem Morris says long stint between HC jobs made him better, not bitter

Published Feb. 29, 2024 9:53 a.m. ET

INDIANAPOLIS — One of the first questions Raheem Morris took this week at the NFL Combine simply asked him what advice he would give to kids hoping to get to where he is today.

"Just work, really, extremely hard," the Falcons' new head coach said. "Learn from your mistakes, continuously grow throughout the process in whatever you're doing. Those are some of the major things that's allowed me to be back in this position."

Morris is 47, and a young, energetic 47 at that, grateful for a second shot at the top of his profession. It's been 15 years since he was promoted to head coach with the Bucs in 2009, struggling to a 3-13 record his first year, barely missing the playoffs at 10-6 the next year, then falling back to 4-12 and losing his job after three seasons and a disappointing 17-31 record.

It would be a decade and four head coaches before the Bucs got back to double-digit wins, and it took Tom Brady to pull it off. Morris had a long road back to where he is now, with three years as a position coach in Washington, then six in Atlanta, including four years on offense to broaden his background. He was the Falcons' interim coach for 11 games in 2020, but was passed over for the permanent job, so he spent the past three seasons with the Rams as defensive coordinator, winning a second Super Bowl along the way.

He got a job that Bill Belichick interviewed for, twice, and he's answering questions about the Falcons now because he has convinced owner Arthur Blank that he can be the coach to end the franchise's six-year drought of losing seasons and get the team back to the playoffs.

And he's doing it with swagger.

"I'm not afraid to say that we have the ability and we're capable of going out there and win, next year, if we do some of the right things," Morris said. "That's not an arrogance. That's not a confidence, a cockiness. That's more of a credit to the people that are in the building with me, still, and some of the people that are not there now. If we had better quarterback play last year in Atlanta, I might not be standing here."

That's an incredibly honest, self-aware comment to make, and it shows how important Morris' next challenge is in finding the quarterback who can be a difference-maker for his team. The Falcons believed in Desmond Ridder last year, passing on more ambitious options, and his inability to limit his turnovers cost Atlanta a chance at a division title, which cost Arthur Smith his job.

Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot made it clear this week that they will explore all options to find that quarterback. They sit at No. 8 in the draft, likely too low to get any of the top three passers in this draft class: USC's Caleb Williams, North Carolina's Drake Maye and LSU's Jayden Daniels. They could trade up, they could trade for a quarterback like the Bears' Justin Fields, or they could sign a more expensive veteran like the Vikings' Kirk Cousins, or take a flier on Russell Wilson if he's cut by the Broncos.

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That wide-open pursuit is daunting, especially on a team seen as a contender on the rest of the field, with young offensive talent to take full advantage of in a new offense, and a defense that took a big step forward last season. The energy with which Morris is attacking that quest has rubbed off on his new colleagues as well.

"It's really exciting, every single day, every single moment," Fontenot said. "Whether if it's a meeting in the morning, text at night, whatever it is. Everybody talks about collaboration. It's really collaborative. He's put together an excellent staff. I would say that we have some real smart coaches that are very collaborative. The communications have been outstanding. It's been very exciting working with Raheem and that whole staff."

There is a historic aspect to Morris' hiring, as the Falcons' first Black full-time head coach in the franchise's 59 years. Atlanta's population is 48% Black, more than three times the national average, but Morris has downplayed the racial aspect of the hire, noting he was one of three Black head-coaching hires in this cycle but not wanting the attention to focus there.

"I don't think it was talked about," Morris said. "I don't think it was a segment on SportsCenter ... whether we're Black head coaches, or we're just the best people for that job. I'm so happy to see Antonio [Pierce] get that job, because he was obviously the best person for that job, that Raider organization. I'm so proud of him. But to call myself a trailblazer, [I] never look at myself that way, because there's so many people in front of me, and there's so many people going to come behind me. I'm just a part of it. I just want to make sure I make everybody else proud around this."

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Morris has talked about the growth and development he has had in the 12 years since he was fired in Tampa, how he's a different coach than he was even three years ago when he was ultimately passed over by the Falcons. It's unusual to have a coach with substantial experience on both sides of the ball, and while he's seen as a defensive head coach, his time on offense in Atlanta had him working with three gurus: Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur and Mike McDaniel.

He is older than all three, but even with today's youth movement in hiring, 47 is young to be guiding an NFL franchise, and rare to have so much wisdom at that age. In NFL history, only one coach has gone longer between head coaching stints: Dick Vermeil, who came back in 1997 after 14 years away and won a Super Bowl in his third year with the Rams.

The case can be made that Morris was too young the first time he was tasked with leading an NFL team, that it was too much, too soon, and that set him back, almost unfairly, in his career trajectory. Morris doesn't buy into that, believing that everything up to this point has set him up for the success he sees ahead of him and his team.

"When you get to the problem of thinking you deserve something before you actually deserve it, that's when problems happen and you allow yourself to be bitter," he said. "You guys know me well enough, that I wouldn't allow anything with the process to make me bitter. I allow it to make me better. Whether it's opportunities to interview with different people, opportunities to grow and learn from different coaches and different walks of life, I think that's the way you have to deal with everything."

Greg Auman is FOX Sports' NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.