The Falcoholic
The Atlanta Falcons hired Raheem Morris believing he could take a roster that had been built in slow and disappointing fashion under Arthur Smith and Terry Fontenot and take it to the next level. It was a gamble on a coach players and fellow coaches love, one who had already had a stint in Atlanta where he played numerous roles, and one that overlooked Morris’s losing record with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was a bet on growth, on familiarity, and on the team’s talent. It was a bet that failed.
The Falcons fired Raheem Morris today, after an 8-9 record in the 2025 season following an 8-9 year in 2024. Morris becomes the first Falcons head coach under Arthur Blank to be fired after fewer than three seasons; if you count his time as an interim head coach, perhaps you consider that three years.
You could say Morris was a victim of heightened expectations—the Falcons were supposed to win with this roster—but also has no one to blame but himself after the losses piled up, his in-game management continued to be shaky, and his hand-picked coordinator hires Jimmy Lake and Zac Robinson hurt this team in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Outsized faith in Younghoe Koo and Kirk Cousins cost him in 2024 and 2025, and paired with shaky roster building from also fired general manager Terry Fontenot, the Falcons turned a reasonably fast start into yet another miserable slog. The reports in recent weeks seemed to indicate Morris would stay, right up until after the game today, but instead the Falcons will clean house for the first time since the 2020 season.
Morris won’t struggle to find work elsewhere, as a secondary coach or defensive coordinator, given his reputation for being a great teacher and leader among other coaches and players. His head coaching career, however, is likely over after two full-time stints and one interim one where he posted one of the worst win/loss percentages in NFL history. I wish him well wherever he lands, regardless, no matter how frustrating his tenure proved to be.
And make no mistake: It was mightily frustrating. Morris ends his Falcons tenure as a permanent head coach at 16-18, a record reflective of the team’s maddening, often mediocre play over that span. Morris’s tenure was defined not by his vaunted ability to get the most out of players or a steadiness at the helm, but chaos. His hand-picked defensive coordinator flamed out after one year, his hand-picked offensive coordinator never could maximize the talent available, and his big swings on players (in conjunction with Terry Fontenot, of course) were a decidedly mixed bag, especially at quarterback. Throw in time management gaffes, the odd firing of Ike Hilliard and release of Ray-Ray McCloud that made a decimated receiving corps look even worse, and his constant evasiveness about injuries and you have a team that was both bad and in the news constantly for all the wrong reasons. Whatever he did behind the scenes...
