Raheem Morris’ return to Atlanta means for the Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons hired Raheem Morris as the team’s next head coach on Thursday.

Morris was last in Atlanta three years ago when he was the interim head coach after Dan Quinn was fired following the team’s 0-5 start. Morris went 4-7 as the interim coach, and Atlanta hired Arthur Smith to replace him. The Falcons fired Smith after three 7-10 seasons.

Morris comes from the Los Angeles Rams, where he had three successful seasons as the defensive coordinator and is widely respected around the league. He’s coached on both sides of the ball.

He’s the first head coach owner Arthur Blank has hired with prior NFL head-coaching experience; he was head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009 to 2011. A young head coach at the time — he was 32 when he was hired by Tampa.

This concludes a search where Atlanta interviewed 14 candidates for the position and had multiple second interviews, including with former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

Taking a closer look, Falcons reporter Michael Rothstein answers two big questions about Morris’ hiring, including what will happen at quarterback. National reporter Dan Graziano dishes on what he’s hearing about the hire and why it wasn’t Belichick and draft analyst Matt Miller spins it forward to the draft. Finally, front office analyst Mike Tannenbaum grades the hire.

A lot. The roster is almost completely turned over from when he left following the 2020 season. Only cornerback AJ Terrell, defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, left tackle Jake Matthews, right guard Chris Lindstrom, right tackle Kaleb McGary and kicker Younghoe Koo remain from the roster he left behind and are under contract for 2024.

The Falcons announced both Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot will report directly to Blank, instead of to CEO Rich McKay. Blank said McKay will “no longer be involved in day-to-day football operations.”

The only thing that will look the same to him might be Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the practice fields.