The 49ers are hiring Raheem Morris as their defensive coordinator, sources confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area.
The former Atlanta Falcons head coach will take the job vacated by Robert Saleh, who was hired as the Tennessee Titans head coach on January 22.
The most crucial aspect of Morris’ hire is his personality connecting with the existing defensive roster. Twice over the past four seasons, the 49ers have failed to find the right chemistry between the coordinator, the scheme and the players. As a result, Steve Wilks (2023) and Nick Sorensen (2024) were both let go after only one season in the job.
Morris was one of three candidates interviewed by Kyle Shanahan that included Joe Woods, who previously was the pass game coordinator for San Francisco and defensive backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, and Gus Bradley who was the assistant head coach, defense for the 49ers in 2025.
After the 49ers were eliminated from the playoffs after their loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round, Shanahan spoke about his admiration Bradley during his season in review press conference.
“I’m going to say it’s a real wide net but Gus is the obvious one to everyone and is to us too,” Shanahan said. “Gus would be the main internal candidate. We feel fortunate to get Gus and great about that. We are going to go through the whole process. There’s requirements we have to do and stuff that we want to do, also. So, hopefully, we can get it settled sooner than later.”
Instead Shanahan and the front office pivoted to an external candidate in Morris.
“Raheem’s one of the best coaches I’ve been with,” Shanahan said in 2023 when Morris was hired as the Falcons head coach. “I got to work with him earlier in my career in Tampa. When I was young I was trying to get my dad to hire him as a D-Coordinator. He ended up becoming a head coach so fast.”
Shanahan and Morris have a long standing working relationship and friendship that began in 2004 during their time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and continued with the Washington (then-Redskins) and Atlanta Falcons over their lengthy careers.
Morris began his football coaching journey in 1998 at Hofstra after playing safety in the program. Just four years later the defensive coach joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers staff as a defensive quality control coach working his way up to an assistant defensive backs coach from 2004-2005.
After a season as the defensive coordinator at Kansas State in 2006, Morris returned to Tampa working his way into the head coaching position 2009-2011.
The two coaches reunited in Washington, and then later in Atlanta when like Shanahan, Morris spent time on the other side of the ball as the team’s assistant head coach, wide receivers coach, and offensive pass game coordinator.
“[In] Atlanta, he actually was on defense,” Shanahan said. “He got to come work with me on offense for a year. The fact that he was on defense his whole career and can came to be our receiver coach, it was unbelievable how cool he was, how good he did.”
Shanahan has faced Morris’ defense multiple times when he was the Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator from 2021-2023 and again while as the Falcons head coach in 2025. Now it appears they will both be on the same side in the coming season.
“Always tried to get him here every single year,” Shanahan said. “But Raheem’s been one of the best.”
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