Falcons interim coach Raheem Morris, who has gone 4-5 this season, will receive an interview to replace Dan Quinn after the season.
“He will definitely, in the process, be interviewed,” Falcons president Rich McKay told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. “He’s earned that right. I’ve known Raheem a long time. I remember when we hired him in Tampa as an assistant secondary coach.”
Morris had refused to look into the future. He repeatedly stated that the Falcons are only trying to go 1-0 each week and won’t address his future.
In the first game after Morris took over from Quinn, who was fired Oct. 11, the Falcons won their first game of the season, 40-23 over the Minnesota Vikings.
They blew the next game 23-22 to Detroit when the Falcons mismanaged the clock. Then the Falcons defeated Carolina and Denver heading into the bye week.
Without much of a rushing attack, the Falcons lost two games to the Saints and one to Tampa Bay, while also shocking the Las Vegas Raiders, 43-6.
“He is really a good football coach,” McKay said. “He inherited a situation. We were 0-5. When you’re an interim coach with 11 weeks to go, that’s more than challenging. He’s earn that right to be interviewed, and he will.”
Morris, 44, was Tampa Bay’s head coach from 2009-11. He was named the head coach at age 32.
In 2010, the Bucs were 10-6 and narrowly missed the playoffs. They were 4-12 the following season and Morris was fired.
Morris said he tried to grow from the Tampa Bay experience.
“You went into (the position), and there was no manual for that job,” Morris said after attending the QB Summit over the offseason. “You go into it and how you feel like you learned from the people you’ve been around. I’d been around some really good people in a limited amount of places because I was so young at 32.”
He went to Washington (2012-14) and then to Atlanta (2015-present) and has worked with Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur and Quinn. Morris has coached on offense and defense. He was the Falcons’ wide receivers coach from 2016-18.
Last season, he moved to the defense and helped the team finish 6-2.
Falcons’ 2021 draft position
1. Jacksonville
2. New York Jets
3. Cincinnati
4. Carolina
5. Falcons
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