We Asked Falcons Coach Raheem Morris About “The Penix Pick”: EXCLUSIVE

We Asked Falcons Coach Raheem Morris About “The Penix Pick”: EXCLUSIVE

and now we are here with Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris how does that sound uh it it it’s always sound great just the Atlanta part yeah um because of the people here um starting with Arthur Blank and our relationship and then all the other people that I’ve had a chance to be up around in this building and then when you add the head coach onto it it really feels good just because the chance to lead the team and to be with those guys so it is uh truly special um any coach but particularly one that you got these kind of ties to I want to talk about that and the last time you were here but I want to go a little bit further back to start with us so let’s go back to 2009 2009 yes okay you’re 32 years old when you get hired to be the head coach of the Bucks yes you go 17 and 31 in those three seasons why you got to bring up the bat because I think that it’s it’s gonna be one of the first questions it’s gonna be one of the first questions people ask right it’s like okay he already was a head coach how is this going to be different so you know what’s funny about that whole thing is like um the 17 to 31 has been like something that people holding those things instead of going with the actual years so in 2009 it was a really crazy season how we started and that was the year we drafted the young rookie quarterback and Josh Freeman and Josh came on I believe right after our buy and we opened up we got a big time win versus Aaron Rogers when we’re at Green Bay and we’re in in the creamsicles that was my first one and I I’ll never forget that so that year um there was a bunch of ups and downs trials and tribulations of how you want to do things and I remember that whole year of building from the draft and how are we going to build young and do this thing the right way and we were taking our time with it and we were being really patient and we did want to play our Young quarterback back then um because we had just got Byron leage we had just traded I believe Luke maau and got Byron Le and we brought him in and we had Josh Johnson um who’s still playing still around yeah and he end up starting a few games for us and then at the end we got to the buy our guy had made so much progress and we hadn’t got a win with the guys we thought we can probably get some sneak some wins in there with and we put in Josh and he played well down the stretch and made us competitive and we went to that next year and went 10 and six and we had arrived a little bit and hit the hit the lockout and we came out started the next year we started off four- two big time win uh versus the Saints got him really good uh you know uh going to a game in I believe it was in London and we went out there played the Bears and lost the overtime game in the Bears always was the Patriots I can’t remember my years get mixed up a little bit but we end up losing a big time game out there and we couldn’t win a game after and once through can’t win a game I think you going this 10 game loser streak it really sounds a lot worse uh than the actual experience was but you know it’s gonna be a big difference you know because you learn so much from even just that experience and then the growth even after that that you get from those experiences being young 32 at 32 you got all the answers right oh my gosh just just ask me right it was like you got all these reasons why you um should fail you got all these reasons why you should do well you got all these reasons why you uh think that you want to do uh things how you want to do it and you missed a couple opportunities to listen to people around you and I think that’s the biggest difference in the 47 year old Raheem Morris as opposed to the 32y old Raheem morrris talking in third person on your podcast if you’re loving it just being able to kind of take things from people around you your ears open a little bit more than you would have back then because I was going to ask you what’s the biggest difference between who you are now and who you were the last time you were in this chair you know I don’t know if it’s just your ears opening it’s a little bit of and we had great people around us so it’s the surrounding of the people it’s the putting the people in the right spot to have that the the the that you can absolutely listen to putting them in position to listen them giving them the platform so you can put yourself and and make better decisions and listen to those people so like the listening part of it all uh as you get older you get wiser uh you get a little bit mature and the things how you go about your business that those things work well for you so I really believe that’s the biggest difference in myself um over the last couple of years and some of the experience that I’ve been able to go through you know which I’m sure we go through at some point but the experience that you go through and your ability to actually to to realize what’s going on and how to fix certain things so you can be a better really assistant coach that I’ve been able to been the last 12 years of of really my work in professional career what’s something you did back then the way you approached something the way you structured something that you would just never do now you know it’s hard to say never you know but youd be more hesitant to do now let’s frame it that way it’s some things you can do better you know um I was more willing to um to not go with some of the non-negotiables on character to bring in better players because we wanted to start till young and do things the right way because we felt like we can mold them and it takes you know an army to raise people and I won’t right now really go against the ethos on the people that you’re bring to your team in order to sacrifice for winning and you want to get the right people around because the people first business and if you can do those things you got a much better chance of getting the goal the end goal that you want for the amount of time that you want it has there been maybe two or three things in the 15 years since whether when you were an assistant couple know lessons things you took that kind of have the foundation or form the foundation of how you’re going to approach the job now there are so many but you know the biggest one for me was uh the collaboration between the winning teams and the teams that don’t have as much success and going to LA and being around Les and being around Shawn McVey and the collaboration that they had from a management standpoint from a coaching standpoint and the ability to lead right I thought that was special and then from the outside end looking at Kevin cobbert and Mike Tomlin being able to be close to that relationship and seeing how they LED and see how that worked and and those were the two biggest things right you’re talking about winning programs winning franchises um teams that’s won Super Bowls different times obviously different times but and being a a part of one and being close enough from the outside to be a part of another um I felt like were the things that were missing um that I had I had a great relationship with Mark MCD Dominic but I don’t think I was collaborate enough and I don’t think vice versa we would collaborate enough together with our ideas our opinions how we moved how we talked to the ownership how we talked to the building how we were together on every single thing how we were tied connected to the hip uh with all the thoughts and everything that happened to do with just about everything you do right you know sometimes you kind of get lucky enough when you’re young I remember talking to Sham about this you kind of get lucky enough when you’re young that you you you don’t know enough to even worry about it yeah right there’s an ignorance there’s a bliss that comes with that ignorance you have no idea what’s actually happening and sometimes that’s helpful yeah and in my case fear yes in my case um I can’t necessarily say that you know there were some blind spots um that I would probably like to be more aware of that I probably could have been more helpful at at the time that I’m able to be more helpful with now um and hopefully that turns to the right direction for us for Success how did you see that collaboration manifest is it when those guys met is it the topics that they would discuss like what did that actually look like in practice with with les and Sean and la so it’ be hard for me to talk about when it happened because it was already gone before I actually got there you know I was able to jump right in the middle almost right we talking about a group that had got together had success won a couple games came out here and lost to us in the Landa in the playoffs right the following year was able to go to Super Bowl together lose the Super Bowl together was able to bounce back and still win football games and get back together and then you know fortunately enough for me I was able to go out there and join those guys in the leadership role and being close to Shawn he was able to bring me behind those back channels so I can see all of the things that they did do and how it went down and I got a close enough relationship with les that I was able to listen to him and see how it went down with him and to see really Les just be this nerd who just wanted to watch football and study players and be great then you watch Shawn who’s a nerd in his own who just wanted to call plays and just wanted to coach football and just wanted to be that guys and he watched those guys get together and it was a great conversation it was great uh battle back and forth on or thoughts or ideas bouncing off each other and then those two guys getting together and making decisions and Us coming out that room and really moving forward how it it was dictated by the head coach is it what types of players you’re looking for is it what want is it what you want the building to feel like what were was the kind of the root of most of those conversations the culture there was a big part of it the we not me mentality that they that just screams through La that was a big part of it the culture when you’re talking about how that was going down and that was really the people the next part about it was the people that they hired and put in place I mean we had great people in place Reggie Scott that was obviously there with les before you had guys like Jack McClendon that was working with our Player Development we had people all in place Brendan Burger in our equipment room and that’s a big part of who you are and what you are and what you do we had people all across that building uh in the strength in in our strength room with love and some of the things that they were doing in that room and just all the people Sophie Harlen people that was in charge of travel and the commitment that was all across the board and the collaboration and the meeting of people that made that thing go the right way you know from the president and Kevin Dem off to Tony pastor and our in our freaking uh money Department doing all the things all the way up to ownership right and I thought that was the one of the cooler um environments be around when it came to people being like-minded and being on the same page for a long amount of time and ownb people the right way to replace people when they did leave to get things to stay in the same and and that’s why I really believe Shawn and Les and that organization had some success over the last couple of years you had to wait a long time for this you know it’s been a while and was there any moment whether it was the types of guys getting hired or certain Trends in that world that was particularly disheartening as you waited for a second chance as other guys got there that that would be I answer this question all the time it’s so funny I feel like I do a repeat interview every time I talk but that would be so selfish of me right because I was one of the few people at 32 years old that was a head coach right so to say I had to wait a long time is such a selfish statement when you guys got like you guys got you got guys like Bruce arens who waited to 60 to be a head coach the first time right so I was felt fortunate to be a head coach at 32 right I felt fortunate to be a coordinator for a very long time in this league I felt fortunate to be able to go from offense to defense or defense to offense within that time I was waiting to be a head coach again I felt fortunate to be promoted to an interim head coach to be able to lead again in a in in a shortterm fashion and then to be able to go to La as a coordinator and lead a team to a Super Bowl and win and then find a way to bounce back after a bad season so I felt like all of those experience were really learning experiences and when you know what it is when you’re doing um really good things it goes really fast so I never got to the old wo was me mentality because um I never felt like I was one of the guys that was slight of an opportunity I had an opportunity didn’t work out how you quite wanted and the next thing you had to do was get ready for the next time it came up and I always felt like it would come because I always had opportunities to either interview always had opportunities to do well always had opportunity to go to the playoff in advance and win more championships whether we’re talking about in Atlanta or we’re talking about LA and that just created habits for myself in order to make me better and I always felt like everywhere I was and the people that was around I had a chance to get better and better every time every single time mentioned you were an interim head coach that was here yes and it wasn’t that long ago years and it’s such a unique circumstance for somebody to be in your position now that I keep using this term today it’s you know where the bodies were buried it’s not that serious but you know what the building is and you know where some of maybe the deficiencies were so when you were going through the interview process how did that knowledge of the way the organization functions allow you to kind of have a different conversation with Arthur Blank and the rest of the selection committee than maybe some other candidates might be able to um the way I looked at it is it gave me a real sense of urgency to want this job because of the people that I knew were already in place and it wasn’t just Arthur Blank it was rich McKay you know it was Kyle Smith that I had a relationship in DC that I didn’t work with in Atlanta but I knew exactly what it was about it was Dean simul that was on the calls that I was able to be a part of it was coming back and actually interviewing a person and being around toika Rish you know being around uh Fernando that I had just met being around uh Brett Jukes who was already a part of the program when I was here that I knew very well that I knew I wanted to come back and be be a part of and be a to work with David Bassy having a chance to come back here and work with those guys Brandon rof and it was almost a feel of I got to get back there to work with people that I really know that I got real investments in that I know we can win together and have a sense of urgency so I’m not saying that it gave me an advantage I think it gave me more of a sense of urgency to get back here to be the best version of myself because I knew we can have a chance to win with the people that I knew were already in place after your last experience here what was something that when you were talking to those guys in the process you knew it needed to change because of your proximity to it you know when I was here the first time I felt like we started off in 2015 with the8 and8 season the next year 2016 the Super Bowl run where we lost the game 17 the playoff run where we lost the game versus Philly they end up winning the championship and then the following we had a small collapse and I felt like it was a relationship collapse between two of my really good friends you’re talking about Dan Quinn who’s like one of my best friends in life who coached me in college and Thomas demitro and it was a little bit of divide and I felt like I wanted to bring that back together the shared Vision the GM relationship with the head coach that just goes throughout the organization that we had here at a time that I wanted to bring back and I felt like when we lost that that was kind of a little bit of a downfall that what we had in my teamor here and you know you would have to ask Dan and you have to ask Thomas on what they felt but that was just some outside looking in version for myself of the relationship between those two and what happened between all of us and how do you format that with Terry is that just spending time is I mean how have you guys spent time together what is the Bedrock of that look like I really believe it kind of happened just over time and I think it’s happened really with us kind of almost right away right it was the immediate hire you know I think the delay and even the the first in the press conference got a chance for us to really meet each other I think us being on the phone actually doing zooms with with interview candidates I think us being on the phone each week talking about what we want to do how we want to move forward the draft process I think our free agent process I think all of that stuff us working together has just been outstanding the support that he’s been able to show me from an offseason standpoint the support I was able to show him from a draft and a free agency standpoint uh being around his people him being around our guys the new guys getting with the old guys the profile tapes all the stuff that we’ been able to do up to this point I I think it’s been a collaborative effort between us two that has just really shown the Shar Vision that we both have and I think our relationship nothing but continue to grow like it’s um it’s almost like a brother relationship at this point and it’s been a very short time where that’s been formed and I got to keep that and maintain and I think that’s my job and I think that’s our job and I think that’s what we have to do in order to get this thing going the way we want to get going everyone pulling in the same direction exactly right remember the last time I talked to you it was before the 21 season and you were in such a unique circumstance you come in as a defensive coordinator for a team but you’re learning the defense yes I mean I can’t remember anything like that because pretty much everyone else had been in place and they had a lot of success lot of I I want to just have you walk me through practically what that looks like because I think it’ll give people a window into how you think and in terms of how you want to interact with your staff and your players so practically what did it look like everywhere you go you know people are going to have systems that are similar I mean it’s just football is football and as simple as form you got fundamentals you got techniques that’s always going to be something that’s your trademark and I just wanted to implement some of my fundamental core beliefs while learning the system in the language that the people already knew right why make 60 other people learn something new as opposed to one learning with the 60 already know and be able to formulate that thing to get it going in the right direction so we can win football games and I felt like it was the easy transition for myself because I had such good people around me and I had such good people that already set nice Foundation that had it going in the right direction to go out there and absolutely have the same goal and win a championship for each other man it was um such a smooth transition I think it was a good transition and I think it was well done by coaches and both players alike um I’m talking about position coaches to coordinators to the head coach from eald evero to you know Eric Henderson to Jonathan Coy to I mean just coaches in this league that are all different areas and all different walks of life that had been in La that had worked with me on different venues and different parts that we got back together and it’s such a mutual respect that it just worked well what’s the most important thing you have to learn in that process is it how to call a game is it how structures work I mean what was the thing that we feel like all right when this light bulb went off now I understand it you know the the the really thing there was the special player that you had mhm when you’re talking about 99 you know he just retired so like having guy not everybody’s been around a person like 99 you know we’re talking about a guy that’s one of one I I guess I was around the closest and like a guy like Warren sa and being able to move that moving part around to make sure you can find ways that he can wreck the game and then you had all these other little pieces around you know you talked about Von Miller came on halfway through you know then you talked about Flo who was a superstar on his own right Jaylen Ramsey was out at corner you just got Ernest Jones implemented into it you had Troy rer who was really productive the player for him you some young safties had some success the year before so you just want to be able to find ways to maximize the players and the talent you had around you and that took a little time throughout the year right or we would have been 17 and0 right didn’t work that way you win a couple games you lose a couple we had a we had a struggle in November which was kind of took us off the radar and then we’re able to bounce back out of that funk it was just one heck of a run in La playing the Super Bowl at home and uh I can’t think of a better feeling as you can possibly have than that it’s always fun watching a team figure itself out over the course of a season and the the moment I remember just the element I remember most from that playoff run is how you unlocked Ernest Jones as a Blitzer and just how that all I mean your guys’ Blitz rate in that playoff run was like 42% which is an outlier compared to what you were during the season but it’s always interesting to see like all right this we some for whatever reason this has clicked into place and this is going to allow us to be a slightly different version of ourselves at the most important part of the year you find ways to utilize your best football players and Ernest was one of them um you know and he played with a bunch of different people right that year we had probably three different middle linebackers and Troy rer Kenny young Ernest Jones all all the different points right you talking about he was a rookie he ended up starting later he end up getting injured you end up bouncing back for the playoff run or somewhat through the playoff run and it’s always fun when you get those pieces in place and you’re able to activate different things you know we had Taylor rap then as well and he was a pretty good Blitz and safety as well so we was able to utilize I his skill set and all of those things you manifest and you find ways to get 101s for 99 and when you get a chance to do that your win rate’s going to go up and that season was a lot of fun to be able to go through all the trials the tribulations the thought process the the every week game planning to maximize the ability and the people that we had and and and it was really fun even Jaylen Ramsey right that was one of his not first not not the first year but that was one of the years he moved around probably the most in his career and it was to maximize his abilities and to get him different spots and to get him different looks so to speak at different playoffs and that was a lot of fun to do as well and like those guys man um got to give them a lot of credit right they were able to get a new coach they were able to buy in they were able to go out there and play at a high level find a way to bounce back through some adversity and win a Super Bowl and that’s what a team is I remember also that summer talking to you about your background sure it’s fascinating because you come up in a Monty kein cover two world yes and then you spend a few years in a blitz happy world in Washington with Jim haet yes and then you learn the Seattle 3 world when you work with Dan for a couple years and then you go to La and you do something completely different than anything else you had ever done so as you come out on the other side of all of that what would you say formulates the bones of what you believe as a defensive coach always been nosy so even before we were always nosy people we stole stuff from Baltimore that we didn’t talk that we didn’t talk about when we were in Tampa you know at when the Mani era was over and we kind of took over for that 2009 2010 year those things were stealing from Baltimore they were stealing from Rex Ryan they was steing from all different people so you always want to evolve and we always going to have a growth mindset and if you can continue with that growth mindset and bring that stuff a part of your fundamental core beliefs you got a chance to evolve every single year to stay ahead of the curve because if you don’t evolve you get left behind in this league there are a lot of smart coaches and Trends happen all the time and Trends come back and they go full circle you know next year who knows might be back to Monte kin Tampa twoo I mean there’s a lot more cover to now than there was five years ago no doubt and it it’s going to continue to happen so like having knowledge of all of those different systems I think have really helped me you know mature develop have the growth mindset not be setting the ways where it’s my system it’s our system wherever we are based on the players that we have and and those things will always continue to be the first and foremost I always think about so as you start to build what it’s going to look like this year do you feel like you’re borrowing the most from what it was in LA just because it’s the most recent language that you used it’s hard to say that because you hire these coaches right and they come from different walks of life and Jerry Gray’s got some other experiences that I want to be interested yeah Jimmy Lake’s got some different experience that you want to dig into you know it have some some some similarities of what it looked like at the Rams but it’s going to be the Atlanta defense it’s going to be the Atlanta 2024 style of defense and it’s going to fit the players that we have and the Kate ellises and the grd Jareds and the David alatas and the AJ Terrell and then all those typ type of guys right it’s just it becomes more fun when you think player first you think player friendly and you think likable you think learnable you think fast you think physical you think free and you allow those guys to go out there and really take ownership of the cost ownership of the play your last couple stops you work with Shawn for three years yes and then when you were here last you got to be the offensive staff when Al Shanahan was here yes so you got a up close and personal look at two of the best play callers in the league and with Sean specifically over the last few years what was cool watching is the different iterations of the offense right right when matth Matthew gets there it’s way more spread out it’s way more downfield and then last year watching them kind of tap into all right we’re gonna be this Duo run Team all kind of like it it was cool watching them figure out the puzzle and when you watch you got to watch that up close so as you kind of understand the way that modern football offense can be successful what does that mean that you have to do on a defense like what does your mindset have to be to combat people like that it’s almost the same man just gave you you know Shawn is a nosy coach as well right and that’s how the you evolve right we we all started this thing together right with Mike Shanahan back at Washington running the Zone scheme and throwing the play actions off the Zone scheme we all know what the language looks like and it sounds like but at the same time K Shanahan and both sha McVey both have Gap scheme they both do what Their players do well he has he has mcaffrey now and Sean has puka Nea yeah and he’s he’s an 11 team and K’s a 21 team but if you really get down to the nuts and bols of it they do what Their players can do they’re both going to have a growth mindset they’re both going to think players first they’re both going to go out there and do what Their guys can do to go win and that’s why they’re considered the best they’re constantly stand ahead of the curve they’re constantly stand ahead of what everybody else wants them to be and they find different ways to morph their stuff to go out there and win football games and as a defensive play ER you better keep up when you were talking to I want to talk about the quarterback room a little bit when you were talking to Zack about Kirk when you guys were initially going to make that decision what was it about Kirk’s skill set and background that you thought made him a fit for what you guys wanted to be offensively the human in Kirk was the number one deal that made him a fit his ethos and who he is as a person being around him in DC knowing exactly was as a rookie knowing what he was as his maturity level grew and he became a starter full-time starter being with K Shanahan being with sha McVey going with Kevin okono you know being around similar systems that we’ve all done and we’ve all worked with that was the first thing the next thing was the player and who we could be the processor the guy that gets the ball in the right spot knows exactly what he wants has a process that he goes through has real purpose in his delivery um love the human love his family love everything is about and bringing him here I thought he can activate some of the players that we have here that are really good that was number one with Zach and we were both like-minded on those thoughts and how we saw that and he was also a part of our process and he was one of the main goals and the main targets that we talked about going to get not publicly but you know obviously in house and what we wanted to do and how we want to go do it is there a certain level of comfort watching him do and have success in an offense in Minnesota that has shared DNA to what you guys want to be he’s had success in every offense that we’ve kind of have DNA in that you could think of going back to Cal Shanahan and Washington to Jay guden to Shawn McVey to Kevin okono to whatever he’s done and really I think it’s more of his attacking mindset of having success than actually the systems and he has a like mindset that we all have um he sees it very similar but it really made it easy uh knowing exactly what Kevin okell was doing knowing exactly that Zach and Kevin worked together that Raheem myself and Kevin and Sean and all of us work together at one point and it’s a big family and it was a lot of fun to be able to incorporate that into it and you forgetting some other people with that you know Matt laflor worked with Kurt Cousins he was his quarterback coach Mike McDaniel was on that staff as well so all of these evolving offenses that you see that are cont consistently getting better and better and making it harder on defensive guys you know Kurt has somewhat a relationship with all these people and that is fascinating for that’s fascinating for all of us uh particularly when you get somebody it’s a quarterback needy team and a team that you think you can go out there and win with if you get the right guy yeah he’s just he’s almost like the platonic ideal of a Shanahan system quarterback I mean it’s like you can you can it’s so easy to Envision dropping him into what you guys want to be and unlocking everything else I can’t I can’t um I can’t call the Shanahan system anymore we call the Shanahan system back in Washington we talking about when you didn’t want to say Kyle or Mike you said the Shanahan now I mean it’s kind of like yeah it’s a little bit everybody it’s it’s it’s the guys and it is the most competitive thing to watch when you get a chance to watch tape and lot of similar things little subtle differences and things of that nature that you can go take from and steal from uh from your own team obviously that’s not the only move you guys made a quarterback this offseason that’s right ultimately what was the deciding factor that you guys made you think it was worth it even after signing Kirk even after being in kind of the win now urgent position that you’re in to pick a guy like Michael penx when you did you know Kurt gives us a chance to win a championship let’s not even put it any other way right whether you talking about winning his division once you get in anything can happen kurur in is 12th year and if we would have drafted Kurt in year one in 2012 and he had been Atlanta Falcon up until this point we’d be looking for somebody to come in and and and and be ready to take be the air parent and take over the Reigns hopefully getting Kurt here we’re not going to be any position to pick a quarterback and you’re sitting there with the eighth pick you evaluate the quarterbacks before and after free agency you evaluate all the positions and you’re sitting there at 8 and the guy you got very high on your board staring at you with a chance to pick them a guy that you believe in guy that’s got a lot of similar traits to the guy that you’re going to know lead you this year and do the things that he’s done got has a cannon of an arm processor humble fit your ethos does everything the right way I got us you know you can bring in here and sit behind a guy for a couple of years no matter how long it takes and say here’s our parent let’s go to work now did it shock everybody catch everybody a surprise because of the amount of investment that you put into the room yes is it the most important position potentially arguably in Sports no doubt and we just felt like if we can fix that room and we can fix that thing short term we can fix it long term the short term is dependent on us right the short term is dependent on Kurt the short term is dependent on how much success we can have in the short term right that thing may turn into whatever it is that is what it is that doesn’t seem like a problem for us what was the moment in the process that you knew you would have felt comfortable doing this with Michael you know um we graded Michael very high and he has some really high grades in our building and particularly myself uh particularly a bunch of the people in the room we had a quarterback contingent which I’ve talked about at at an almost annoying point at this point with Zack Robinson TJ Yates TJ Williams KJ black uh kinan pz Chandler Whitmer you know all guys that have been around quarterbacks right so when you talk about the quarterbacks they been around my guy at the Chargers the famous guy in New Orleans Matt Ryan I mean Matt Stafford these guys have been around and know what it looks like you get the best of valuers in the house in the world to do it let’s believe it stick with our guns and go with it we get to the pick and he’s there pull the trigger what was it about his skill set that you felt was special enough to do something that let’s call it unconventional or surprising you know it’s been coming out more and more as this thing’s gone longer and longer he’s he’s Pro ready you know he’s one of the few guys in college that’s been back there and going through a process and going through a progression uh got the ball out in time you know took the least amount of sacks he’s played a pro game his whole collegiate career um his offensive coordinator is an NFL offensive coordinator now his coordinator is also in the NFL with him yeah um the young man’s Pro ready and I felt like people almost got mad after the fact because he is so Pro ready but for us it was just having an ability to go get a guy you feel like that can sit behind Kurt learn become great have Kurt pass the torch to him at some point and keep it going and have long-term success with a with the organization that deserves it it creates a unique Dynamic and that’s your job right so what do you feel like you’ve had to kind it’s not it’s not your job it’s it’s it’s our job it’s it is the job of the building to handle that unique Dynamic so what do you think has been at top of mind for you in how the building needs to approach that Dynamic the only reason you can even make that kind of step is because of the person that pinix is if pinix wasn’t the guy that he is then we wouldn’t be able to do it and really both of them Kurt isn’t the guy that he is we couldn’t make those type of decisions you know when you have a guy like pennick a strong character strong personality fits the Falcon ethos all about winning one common goal both of these guys aiming at the same thing looking at each other knowing that you can get better every single day those are the kind of people you have that’s the kind of people you want and the rest of us we got to be there to support those guys and I think that’s that’s our part of it being able to support our guys one of the people that you brought to be a part of that process is Zach Robinson yes why Zach and as you looked at all the offensive coordinator options available to you why did you land on him when I got the LA uh three years ago it was an immediate connection with Zack um being able to watch him move in silence with the genius you know watching him with Kevin okano watching them with sha McVey watching them with Liam watching them with all the guys that’s on that that that Rams offense whether it be Eric yarber whether it’s been whoever the case may be talking to the old line coaches whether it was Wendy whether it was chromer no matter who it was at the time it was his presence his calm his demeanor his knowledge of the system his connection with me um he was a clear-cut easy choice for me I was fortunate now I kind of joke with all the guys now so I’m kind of like the middle child right I was the young guy when it came to Monty and Mike Tomlin and some of those guys but I was like kind of the old guy when it came to C Shanahan and Shawn McVey and Matt laflor and Mike McDaniels and some of these guys and he reminds me of those guys so when I sit in that that middle seat and I get a chance to sit back and watch and I watched these guys I knew they’re gonna have success at some point not knowing when he fits the M of what those guys how they started what it looked like um the obsession to be great all the things that those guys have that he possessed and it’s one of the guys that I want to go to work with when you guys were when you were talking to him about what the plan wanted to look like on offense what it needed to look like on offense who are the players that were at the center piece of that who did you when you were talking to Zach initially be like we need the right plan for this guy it’s so funny because it’s hard to do that right I have five interviews with five different jobs right and you you’re more picking the person you’re more picking the person just opposed to anything else right and it’s like I’m picking Zach and then where are we going who am I interviewing for how does this fit how we gonna make this work so we had those conversations five different times right when it comes to our job it was exciting when it comes to the one we got Right Drake London Cal pittz bejan Robinson right the last three first round draft picks the offensive line here Jake Matthews berson Chris Lindstrom dolman right you’re talking about Caleb McGary talking about Five Guys two first round picks that was here when we picked them you know you’re talking about a second round pick in run you’re talking about an all-tim and and and first round pick and and Matthews and you’re looking at the line it’s ready made it’s ready to go some of the coaches that’s coached them some of the people that’s been with this team and the unit you get excited about that for Zach and the piece that we can add to it when we get here and it’s like this was a really good fit for all of us and it was a good look for all of us and let’s go add a quarterback got a chance to add Mooney got a chance to add Ray Ray got a chance to trade for Rondell get some people around us get more people keep getting better every day uh the to be great for my scouting Department uh it just doesn’t stop and I love that when you were trying to formulate plans for those those three guys those three first round picks yes who are you most excited about building a plan for as you guys got started kind of building the foundation of the offense start to run Bean Robinson is exciting let’s not kid ourselves right you know starts with the run and and and that upfront crew and the toughness that they play with they display last year and how to get off the ball and then you see the talent in bejan and you had a Valu way he does guys from the last couple even though we have a first round pick in La you still looked at him just yeah just out of pure curiosity I feel like you have to watch a guy like that bjan was coached by Sark who worked with us in Atlanta and you know a lot about that and cheering for Texas is was easy to do and you know and stared to run you know wherever you go all the all old school coaches man tell you start spok as like a true defensive football coach let’s think about the running game and stopping the run first is always that way yeah no matter how many different systems you’ve been in or how many times You’ had to think about football differently that’s at the core of it all still hear Monty kein right now get in front of the row hey guys I got stop the run Monty and Rod Marinelli I’m sure I’m sure just getting together doing that that’s it sincerely appreciate the time uh very excited about you getting this opportunity and uh curious to see how it goes and where you guys take it awesome no problem man thank you thanks always good to come on awesome

Robert Mays has an exclusive sit-down interview in Atlanta with Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris, topics include the growth that led him to this point, why Atlanta, why Kirk Cousins, why Michael Penix Jr, and much more.

0:00 Intro / Tampa Bay days
5:07 Learning from McVay & others
11:57 Why Atlanta?
13:00 What happened last time?
14:08 Relationship with GM Terry Fontenot
15:23 How he implamented a new defense quickly
24:29 Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr.
32:29 Zach Robinson

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