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Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer
ATLANTA — It was simple for Raheem Morris, really. This, he felt, was home.
The concept of coming home was a primary theme of Morris’ introductory news conference, a former assistant coach and interim head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, returning to the club for the full-time job Monday afternoon.
“I can’t tell you, I can’t express the joy that I have right now to be able to come back and work with the Blanks, to be able to come back and work with all these people around me that I have been for years,” Morris said. “… I don’t know, have you ever been in a spot to coming back home?
“This is certainly the best feeling in the world.”
Morris, 47, focused on the feeling of a homecoming multiple times during his hour-long press conference — one where team owner Arthur Blank, who made the final decision to hire Morris, was not in attendance due to what Blank Family of Businesses spokesman, Brett Jewkes, deemed a “minor medical issue.” The Falcons are hopeful Blank can meet with the media later this week.
Blank was referenced multiple times by Morris, both in his relationship with the owner and his family and his goal of winning a Super Bowl so Blank can lift up a Lombardi Trophy — something the Falcons have yet to do as an organization.
There was a familiarity for Morris beyond Blank as well. He mentioned CEO Rich McKay — who was in attendance but did not speak with the media — hired him multiple times throughout his career, including his first NFL job as a defensive quality control coach with Tampa Bay in 2002. McKay is no longer the direct report for the head coach and general manager — a role removed from his duties when the club hired Morris last month — but McKay was part of the search to hire Morris.
He also referred to team president Greg Beadles, who was on a three-person dais with Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot, and how he remembers Beadles working his way up the organization.
“I can’t wait to build this thing, man,” Morris said. “This thing is different.”
Morris is the first Black, non-interim head coach in Falcons history — something Morris said isn’t lost on him as he takes over the full-time gig. Also, how important he believes it is to the city of Atlanta.
He said, though, one of the things which he thought was “the coolest part about this process” was that diversity wasn’t brought up throughout. He said he believes that is progress.
“It wasn’t even brought up about it being a lack of diversity, about it being a lack of Black people having an opportunity to be head coaches,” Morris said. “I think it was three in this cycle. I don’t know, exactly, but it was not being brought up.
“I thought that was a real cool moment that that was less about what we talked about and it was more about the right people for the job and the right placement for the people in their jobs than that.”
The Falcons interviewed 14 people for their vacant head coaching position, a process Fontenot called “excellent,” and Beadles acknowledged former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was “a very serious candidate for us,” but said at the end of the process, they decided what the “best fit for us in the current situation” was, and that it was a unanimous decision to hire Morris.
On. Jan. 8, Blank said Fontenot would have “input” in the hiring process. On Monday, Fontenot said he led the interview portion of the team’s coaching search.
Morris has been a head coach twice before — three seasons in Tampa Bay when he was the NFL’s youngest head coach and went 17-31 from 2009-2011. Then after Dan Quinn was fired by Atlanta after five games of the 2020 season, Morris took over an 0-5 Falcons team and went 4-7 the rest of the year.
He then went to Los Angeles, where he became the Rams‘ defensive coordinator and saw how head coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead worked collaboratively. They won a Super Bowl together in 2021 and in those three years, he realized he was “jealous of that relationship.” It’s a relationship he’s hoping to build with Fontenot, who he didn’t know before the interview process.
“I had been hearing a lot of really positive things about him,” Fontenot said. “And even when he was the head coach in Tampa, I told him a few things about his press conferences, I used to listen to ’em. So I’ve known about him or of him for a long time.
“And the way people talk about him is that part of it. He’s a really good teammate. He’s a really good person.”
Now Morris will run his own show again – he and Fontenot will both report to Blank – and Morris said he won’t be calling defensive plays, either. He’ll leave that for new defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake, who Morris worked with in Tampa Bay and Los Angeles.
But Morris made something clear throughout his opening press conference. His first goal is to win the NFC South. He was on the Falcons coaching staff which dropped a 28-3 third quarter lead lead to lose Super Bowl LI to the New England Patriots in overtime on Feb. 5, 2017 — seven years to the date of his introductory presser.
It’s a loss that stings “the worst that I’ve ever had.” So some of this, Morris said, is trying to “get some real cool redemption,” too that he believes will help change narratives around the franchise. Win the division, make the playoffs and Morris said anything can occur.
“You want to go out there and get yourself into that mindset,” Morris said. “Because like Terry mentioned, it’s definitely a mentality towards our reality. And that’s got to be the focus of all of us. “And the last thing with that is, ‘Why not us? Why not?'”
For it to be the Falcons’ time, they’ll need to sort out their quarterback issues
Morris said they’ve had “limited conversations” about the future of the quarterback position and said they could look at free agency, trades and the draft about the position. Atlanta has both Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke under contract for 2024.