The Falcons famously chose Raheem Morris over Bill Belichick in their January 2024 head coaching search. While it’s anyone’s guess how the Falcons would have fared under Belichick, the team has disappointed with Morris at the helm. The Falcons dropped to 4-9 last Sunday with a lopsided loss to the Seahawks. They’ve won just 12 of 30 games since the beginning of last season.
Including a three-year run with the Buccaneers and a previous stint as the Falcons’ interim choice, Morris is 33-56 as a head coach in the NFL. The 49-year-old’s .371 winning percentage ranks last among active head coaches, Josh Kendall of The Athletic notes. It now appears Morris’ time in Atlanta is running out, according to the Washington Post’s Jason La Canfora, who writes that he’s “as good as gone.”
While that may prove true when the Falcons’ season wraps up in four weeks, Morris insists he still has the backing of owner Arthur Blank.
“Support is not an issue. He is absolutely outstanding,” Morris said of Blank (via Kendall). “His ability to listen to us, be there for us, be in it with us is 100 percent awesome.”
For his part, Morris is continuing to stick with his coaching staff. He’s not planning to make any changes this late in the season, saying they’re “irrelevant” at this point. It’s something Morris plans to evaluate after the season, though it’s up in the air whether he’ll continue in his current post.
Whether it’s Morris or someone else in 2026, Atlanta’s head coach will face an uphill battle in turning around a franchise that just extended its playoff drought to eight years. For one, the Falcons have major questions at quarterback after second-year man Michael Penix Jr. suffered a season-ending ACL tear in Week 11.
Penix, the initial first-round pick of the Morris era, didn’t perform particularly well during his first 14 NFL games. He also has a long-running history of serious injuries dating back to college, and it’s unknown if he’ll be ready for the beginning of the 2026 campaign. The Falcons are unlikely to retain struggling backup Kirk Cousins and his bloated contract next year, which means they’ll have to pick up QB insurance during the offseason.
Adding to the Falcons’ problems, they aren’t in position to address any needs in the first round of next year’s draft. General manager Terry Fontenot traded the team’s top 2026 selection to the Rams last spring. That move enabled the Falcons to grab edge rusher James Pearce 26th overall. Pearce has racked up a team-leading six sacks as a rookie, but the first-rounder the Falcons surrendered for him is on pace to end up in the top 10. The Rams – not Morris or his potential successor – will reap the benefits of that pick.
Been saying it all year, he needs to be gone. For a defensive coach they don’t have an elite defense and offensively need some direction.
Most of their defensive front is in their first or second year. I feel like expecting them to be elite already is a big reach.
Exactly, Oooof.
Defensive players take as much time to develop as offensive linemen. There’s so much they have to learn and master in order to not be liabilities let alone be good.
It’s not like Bill did anything at UNC, besides cheating once again.
Wonder if Blank will circle back to him, though.
That would be insane.
Yeah, but I think that we can see it, right? Do I expect fantastic results? No, not really, but I do think that it could happen. Blank’s been a good owner, as far as he can be-he’s tried to balance taking an interest and not meddling, and is willing to spend to improve the team, but you have to feel that he’s getting more desperate to find stability. I definitely would say that he listens to some bad advice too often (similar to Shad Khan). Belichick is the most stable option that you can think of-if you decide that the last few years are a fluke or something that you can fix.
I could see Blank trying it. He hired Morris at McKay’s behest (for some reason, he still listens to him). Evidently, Bksnk wanted Belichick. Now that Morris hasn’t lived up to expectations, you have to wonder if he’ll listen to McKay yet again if McKay objects.
The downside with Belichick is, even if he suddenly returns to his old form, that it will take him years to build the kind of organization that he operates with from top to bottom. It’s not something that will happen in a year. That’s a big ask for a guy at his age, regardless of his recent decline.
Not as insane is circling back to the 4-7 guy from 2020
How many true coaches are there though, arty? Belichick had Brady . What did he do in the years before and after him. Same with Tomlin here in Pittsburgh, where he had Big Ben and a group of incredible players from Cowher and Colbert
He’s done little since
These guys hit the lottery and media has trumpeted them when really, they benefitted from some incredible players. I just tend to think great, true coaches are rare. Payton in Denver. Perhaps Vrabel in New England. Perhaps Campbell. Guys who build something from the ruins
It’s why young, innovative minds should be given the chance before guys like Belichick, who live on reputation alone
Amen! Sean McVay has taken 2 different QB’s to the SB as have Andy Reid this century alone. Mike Holmgren did the same. I have only read the headlines, but it seems UNC will have just cause for firing Bill due to scandals.
Lol
I think your example may prove you need both a good QB AND a good D. Cowher had the Steelers decent every year with solid D, Kordell and Tommy Maddox at QB, but Ben carried them over the top. Belicheck provided the Tom Brady led teams with solid D the years the won SBs. Even when Tom won SB at Tampa, that season Bucs D was stellar.
The team spent $112 million in guaranteed money and a top ten pick on two quarterbacks and they still haven’t had a good quarterback. I think that’s a much bigger reason the team has struggled than the coaching staff.
Atlanta’s defense is permanently a cardboard cutout
Hiring the interem coach from years ago was the most bizarre thing they could do
More bizarre than paying a QB 150 million then drafting one in the top ten the same offseason?
Hard to win when you go all in and end up with two medicore (at best) QBs.
T-Law and Caleb Williams looked pretty mediocre last couple of seasons. New head coaches completely turned the tide for those teams. Falcons have some good pieces to compete. Morris and Arthur Smith were and are the problem.
Those are two of the best quarterback prospects to enter the league in the last 20 years. Penix was a reach as even a top ten pick.
Rather than trying to find reasons to fire him which are many, is there anyone who can come up with one reason why they should keep him? I’ll wait.
Oooof.. Bingo.
Penix’s serious injuries and surgeries were reason enough to wait, and those were during his college career
How about trading a first round pick to move up for a “hybrid” edge that wasn’t even graded as a first rounder.
16- I guess it’s because it’s not the QB position, but I’ve wondered for awhile why that move doesn’t receive as much scrutiny as signing Cousins and drafting Penix. Nobody saw Pearce as an elite, can’t miss edge, yet Atlanta gave up an extra 1 to move up for him… at PICK 26! They’re just lighting picks on fire. Pearce has been solid, but nowhere near the level to justify the value given up.
What they wanted to do was sit pennix for a few yrs and let him develop while cousins starts, they wanted to copy the packer model but it obviously didn’t happen. So from that standpoint it wasn’t really bizarre
I can’t believe the Dimitroff and Smitty time was actually the good ole days. Burn it down.
It doesnt help Morris that they lost receivers weekly to injury. A young squad and they lost some players on the offensive line as well. Can Penix recover from injury? Will they pursue another veteran next year? Morris will get at least another year.
Right, they haven’t had their right tackle all season and they’ve had injuries to both London and Mooney when they never had a good receiver beyond those two.
I actually thought Hodge would do more this year and though Pitts is okay, one TD isnt enough. Do we agree he may be gone next year?
I think losing Dalman also affected the team.
I would not have expected a receiver who mostly plays special teams to have a receiver breakthrough in his age 30 season. Pitts could well be gone. Dalman gone definitely made the road harder.
Penix had injury issues in college and was old as a draftee. At this point you have to expect injuries will plague his career and he’s about as good as he will be. Anything else is going off pure hope.
Wish I’d read this before I said it above. Agreed. Well stated
That’s ridiculous, Ace. We have seen time and time again that QBs need development and can eventually find their footing and become good even years into their career. There’s no such thing as an age based ceiling when it comes to playing QB.
That is true, but Michael Penix Jr. has a significant injury history, including two torn right ACLs, a fractured right clavicle, a left shoulder AC joint sprain and most recently, a partially torn left ACL this season. These injuries are going to affect and continue to affect how long he can remain in the NFL.
That’s with QBs who came out relatively early. Penix transferred and played a lot of college seasons. And each of his legs have at least one major injury on record. Cope all you want I hope it’s wrong I don’t root for him to fail I just see the writing on the wall.
Morris doesnt need another year. His poor clock management alone should get him fired. He was terrible with Tampa Bay, he was terrible with the Falcons the first time and he’s terrible now.
This year’s coaching carousel doesn’t have too much to offer. Defensively you have Chris Shula and Vance Joseph. Offensively you have Joe Judge and Matt Nagy (and you know what you have with him), Kafka too. Not an ATL follower, so I’m not sure if they are better than Morris.
Nobody wants Judge or Kafka given their legacy with the Giants.
Bills fans wil happily give up one of the preseason favorites to get a HC job, Joe Brady. What if we say “pretty please?”
Klint Kubiak, Jesse Minter, Joe Brady, Brian Flores, Mike LaFleur, Marcus Freeman, maybe Sark. It’s not the best, but there are other options.
Packers defense coordinator
Chris Shula has done an amazing job with Los Angeles. Look at some of the starters they have in that secondary. I mean Darious Williams? And yet they’re a really good unit.
No brainer to hire Bielchik
It would be a terrible decision, but it wouldn’t be a surprise.
Not a surprise if you want to own “4-13 Forever”.
Right, in that you’d need to have no brain to hire Belichick
Hey, throw Tomlin in the mix while you’re at it. Two guys who benefitted by incredible talent and did little after that talent left. Yeah, haven’t the Falcons fans suffered enough already?
Good riddance lmao
Giving Cousins all that cash was dumb.
Kyle Trask is available, he was a Decent college QB, was back up to Baker Mayfield an Tom Brady, drafted in the second round. Falcons should bring him in as back up for 3 years, dich Cousins, an Penix in 26′ then sign Joe Flacco to a 2 year deal. Bring in some “veterans” that can help out the young players. One or two Veteran; WR, D-linemen an O-Linemen would help some in teaching the young guys an the team overall would benefit from their Experiences. An if Morris wants to improve then maybe get a Good Defensive coordinator, someone who has been around the league, an a new Offensive Coordinator with both College an NFL experience that is a bit old school and will run the ball. If you can run the ball well the line can hold for the QB to make some plays.
Injuries are a concern, youth is a concern, play calling is a concern. The team not only needs better direction at the moment it needs experience.
Sign Kenny Pickett in the off-season and trade for Dillon Gabriel…..patchwork QB room but affordable
Ah, the Browns Blueprint for “Suckcess”. You’ve read the book, I see. Maybe they can pry Watson away while they’re at it
♫ He’s leavin’, leavin’, on that midnight train from Georgia
Leavin’ on that midnight train, mm, yes
Said he’s goin’ back, goin’ back to find
To a simpler place and time ♫
He was put into an unfair situation with a team desperately trying to rebuild after years of trying to keep winning post Matt Ryan.
They have a few pieces but they’re far from a complete, winning team. His QB has also gotten injured two straight years in a row.
He deserves more time to turn things around imo.
No one in Atlanta wants him around. Have you seen how he does clock management? He never knows when to use a timeout. He should’ve never been hired in the first place.
Two things might be true here:
1. Raheem is not a good coach and should be let go.
2. The roster is not great, so expecting a new coach to come in and win right away is unrealistic.
The move up trade to get Pearce was a sign to many in Atlanta that Fontenot feared losing his job and needed the team to win in 2025. If that’s correct, he’s going to be gone also.
So Falcons are looking for a total re-boot with new GM, Head Coach, and staff. Fans will hope they get it right …
As a 49ers fan, I hope the Falcons don’t do the smart thing and hire Robert Saleh as HC and trade for Mac Jones
The top coach and gm, is in the owners sphere. They communicate daily and have a relationship.
It is pulling teeth for these to be fired.
Those outside the sphere of influence. Well.