FLOWERY BRANCH – As Falcons coach Raheem Morris surveyed his first-team defense at Monday morning’s practice, this is part of what he saw.
A safety who was a second-round pick in 2021 who has three interceptions in 50 games and 32 starts (Richie Grant). An edge rusher who had one sack in 418 defensive snaps last season (James Smith-Williams). A cornerback on his fourth team who has started 22 games in six seasons (Mike Hughes).
It was also the first practice since safety DeMarcco Hellams suffered a severe ankle injury and rookie edge rusher Bralen Trice tore his ACL in the team’s exhibition game at Miami on Friday. Hellams was competing for a starting job and Trice was expected to have a role on the first- and second-down defense.
It’s also a defense that was entirely average last season, lost its top two sack producers to free agency and, importantly, is still being counted on to help get the Falcons into the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
There are better things to look at.
But the hopeful element for the Falcons under Morris’ leadership is that he’s been dealt similar hands before and still made something out of them. Morris doesn’t mind coaching defenses that, on paper, look like underdogs and fashioning them into capable groups.
“I’ve always kind of been like that anyway,” Morris said Monday. “I think it was Mike Tomlin who said to me a long time ago, ‘Hey, dude, I don’t care what you’re doing with that other safety, but what you’re doing with that rookie, that’s pretty good.’”
The Steelers coach is a mentor of Morris’. The two worked together 2002-05 when Tomlin was Tampa Bay’s defensive backs coach and Morris was the Buccaneers’ defensive quality-control coach, then defensive assistant and then assistant DB’s coach.
“We’ve always kind of taken a certain pride into really developing rookies, really developing guys that you don’t know about and getting those guys to be contributors,” Morris said.
The Falcons have a few of those types on their defense. They do have players with estimable track records, such as all-pro safety Jessie Bates III, defensive linemen David Onyemata and Grady Jarrett and linebacker Kaden Elliss. But there’s a lot of question marks outside that group.
Fashioning a serviceable defense – one that can aid and not hinder the Falcons’ postseason ambitions – might be Morris’ biggest challenge of his first season, particularly with the injuries to Trice (out for the season) and Hellams (out for “significant time,” according to Morris). But Morris has done it, even as recently as last year when he was the Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator.
With 35% of their salary cap tied up in dead money (according to Spotrac), the Rams chose to cut corners on defense. Of the 12 players with the highest cap charges on the active roster, 10 were on the offensive side.
In the Rams’ final game of the 2023 season, Morris had a starting lineup with seven players who had not been full-time starters prior to 2023. THree of the 11 had entered the league as undrafted free agents. Only one of the 11 was a first-round pick (although it was someone you’ve probably heard of – future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald).
And yet, that final game was a playoff game, a Rams’ loss to Detroit in the wild-card round. The Rams were far from a defensive juggernaut – they were 20th in total defense. But, considering the limitations, Morris’ unit more than did its part. The Rams won seven of their final eight regular-season games to finish 10-7 and make the playoffs. They allowed 21.6 points per game in that stretch, a hair below the league season average.
The Falcons aren’t flush with talent, but they would appear to be better on paper than the Rams’ 2023 defense (aside from the obvious exception of Donald). Is it reasonable to expect a defense that’s at least functional?
Jerry Gray, the Falcons’ assistant head coach/defense, was well aware of Morris’ reputation prior to his hire and has now seen the handiwork firsthand.
“He’s done a fantastic job of getting guys to play at a high level,” Gray said. “The good thing that he does for us is that he gets the guys to compete. He tells them ‘What I need you to be. I want you to be this. And then go out there and prove that you can get to that level.’ I think that’s what a lot of guys appreciate.”
Gray shared his belief that Morris can make it work with players like edge rusher Arnold Ebiketie, who has the physical tools but has yet to be impactful in his first two seasons.
“To me, I think there’s a lot of guys that can take a step up, and I see (Morris’) fingerprints on them,” Gray said. “Not just guys on defense, but on offense.”
Another element of forming a defense greater than the sum of its parts, Morris said, is making sure players care about the game and their jobs. He recalled Donald essentially telling him that he was fine with whomever the team put around him, but “just make sure they care.”
Morris said that’s what he has with this defense.
“These guys care, and when you get a chance to get them into their meeting rooms, you get them into their practice settings, particularly last week in those joint practice settings (with the Dolphins), you really feel the people that care about football and love the game,” he said.
Skepticism is easy, particularly for a Falcons fan. The defense appears deficient at edge rusher, No. 2 corner opposite A.J. Terrell and, now, at the safety spot alongside Bates. (Two-time Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons, a free agent, is a possible replacement, according to the reporting of colleague D. Orlando Ledbetter.)
It would seem like there’s far more to it than finding players who care. In the franchise’s six-year playoff drought, five defensive coordinators came and went, unable to help the Falcons into the league’s top half in points against or to win more than seven games. One of the five was a coach named Raheem Morris.
Developer of players, definer of roles, dropper of names – Raheem Morris will be tasked with accomplishing the unlikely this fall.
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