FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons coach Raheem Morris will put his friendship with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin on the back burner this week.
In his return to the head coaching ranks of the NFL, Morris and the Falcons are set to host Tomlin and the Steelers at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Morris and Tomlin worked together with Tampa Bay from in 2002-05. Tomlin left in 2006 to become Minnesota’s defensive coordinator. After a season, he was named Pittsburgh’s coach in 2007 and currently is the longest-tenured head coach in the NFL.
Morris went on to become Tampa Bay’s head coach from 2009-11, and they’ve been friends and coaching pals every since.
Several times, Morris has slipped into his impersonation of the colorful Tomlin during his press conferences. Also, Tomlin has used his press conferences to send Morris’ message.
But for this game, both are blocking all their relationship as Morris called it “gray matter” for the coming game.
“He’s told the story many a times, but I was his assistant and he’s always been developing,” Morris said. “He’s trying to develop me this week through the media, trying to give me stuff that I should be working on, but he’s always been a guy that’s a big part of development.”
Tomlin named Russell Wilson as his starting quarterback, but warned the Falcons to be ready for a package for backup quarterback Justin Fields. He clearly wanted to make Morris and the Falcons do a little extra film study.
“It’s kind of what we’ve been as we kind of grown up in coaching whether it was (former Bucs defensive line coach) Rod Marinelli, whether it was Mike Tomlin, whatever the case may be,” Morris said. “When you have younger coaches and people around you want to give him ‘role clarity’ so to speak again.”
Morris would have fun running some of the meetings for Tomlin as his assistant defensive backs coach. He would slip into his Tomlin voice.
“He would lean outside of his office which is a closet and he’d go, ‘Hey, you imitating me or you coaching?’” Morris said. “We’d all laugh. All the players knew, but it really wasn’t picking on him. It really was emulating some greatness and some of the things he’s able to do like nobody can hold the form like Mike Tomlin within the media.”
Morris admires Tomlin’s descriptive style of talking and spot-on descriptions.
“He’s been able to do that over the years, and it just so happens in Week 1, man,” Morris said. “He’s a great man, and he knows it.”
After his stint as head coach with the Bucs, Morris landed on his feet quickly with Washington. It was Tomlin who suggested to him that he spend some time coaching with the offense.
It was former Falcons coach Dan Quinn who gave him a shot to coach the wide receivers.
“He was one of the first people to even make me even think that way,” Morris said. “You know, because he had played offense in college at William and Mary. ... He was a receiver when I met him. He was a defensive back coach (at Tampa Bay), and he looked at it from an offensive lens.”
Morris also cited coach Jon Gruden for allowing the defensive coaches to attend the offensive installation periods and watch him work with the quarterbacks.
“So, we were nosy,” Morris said. “We attended as many of those (meetings) as we possibly could. He was definitely a ... major part, (an) encouraging factor of even diving into the offense before I had ever even coached it.”
Morris was the Falcons’ assistant head coach, wide receivers coach and offensive pass-game coordinator from 2016-19. He went back to the defense as coordinator in 2020.
“(There was) no hesitation going into it because of those moments with Mike Tomlin and thinking about the background knowledge that you want to have being a coach on defense,” Morris said. “Having knowledge to coach on offense, and it certainly serves me well right now in the position I’m in now.”
The Steelers lead the series 15-2-1. The last time the Falcons beat the Steelers, George W. Bush was the president. The Falcons beat the Steelers 41-38 on Oct. 22, 2006. The Steelers have won the past four meetings.
Falcons safety Justin Simmons played with Wilson the past two seasons with the Broncos.
“Russ is a proven veteran in this league,” Simmons said. “I had the pleasure of being his teammate for the last few years in Denver. I know that he’s going to be prepared. He’s going to be ready.”
Wilson, 35, a nine-time Pro Bowler, is set to enter his 13th season in the NFL. He has a 115-72-1 record as a starter and helped Seattle win Super Bowl XLVIII over Denver on Feb. 2, 2014.
“He’s going to have those guys going,” Simmons said. “We have our work cut out for us defensively. ... They’ve got great receivers, great run game, we are going to have to be able to do our thing.”
The strength of the Steelers team is their defensive front, which features outside linebacker T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith and defensive end/tackle Cameron Heyward. Watt led the NFL with 19 sacks last season.
“We’ve got a huge challenge ahead of us in Week 1,” Falcons All-Pro right guard Chris Lindstrom said. “We have the Steelers and they one of the best fronts in the NFL.”
The Falcons are trying to snap a streak of six consecutive losing seasons, while the Steelers have not had a losing season since 2003.
Jason Getz/AJC
Jason Getz/AJC
Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
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