Raheem Morris is deservedly catching flak for the job he’s done as Falcons head coach. Despite significant resources poured into the roster since his arrival — through both free agency and the draft — he’s failed to deliver better results than his predecessor. In fact, he’s actually on a worse trajectory, which is pretty incredible considering Arthur Smith had Desmond Ridder, Taylor Heinicke, and Marcus Mariota as his starting quarterbacks over his final two years.
Morris hasn’t done anything particularly well in his return to Atlanta. His time management has been atrocious, he’s failed to keep his team focused from week to week, and his coordinator hires have been dismal.
It took just one season for Morris to fire defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake. Credit to him for not waiting any longer, and the early returns on Jeff Ulbrich have been encouraging. But now Zac Robinson is under fire.
Following a 34-10 blowout loss to the 1-6 Dolphins, the media asked Morris about whether there would be any offensive staff changes, specifically alluding to Robinson. Morris, unsurprisingly, said absolutely not.
“I’ve got so much confidence in Zac Robinson. I know we can move the football. I know we can do those things… We’ve got a lot of confidence we’re gonna get it going this week,” Morris said.
With nine games left and the playoffs still within reach, firing a coordinator without a backup plan would be foolish. The Falcons don’t have much of a choice but to see things through with Robinson calling the shots, but acting as if this offense has looked anywhere close to competent through eight weeks is borderline insane.
Which brings us to what I believe are the most dimwitted words to ever come out of Raheem Morris’ mouth during his tenure as Falcons head coach:
“It’s like the best offense we’ve had since 2016, and we’ve done a really good job over the course of the last two years, and we’ve done some really good things across the board,” Morris said, via Garrett Chapman of Sports Illustrated. “We’ve got to get better in the red zone this year, and we’ve got to do a better job in the red zone this year. I believe in my guys. I believe in what they do. I believe we’ll go out there and get that stuff done. I believe we have the system in place, the coaches in place. I believe the guys are in place, and we’ll go out there and get those guys ready to go, and we’ll play football.
“It’s not about defending everybody. It’s not crisis management every time something goes wrong, you gotta go out there, and you’ve gotta play and do what you do and how you believe in it. That’s what we do.”
I understand having confidence in your guys — but come on, read the room. The 2016 offense was one of the greatest of all time, featuring a couple of likely Hall of Famers and coordinated by another future Hall of Famer. That group averaged 33.8 points per game — the most in the league that season and the 14th most in NFL history. This year’s team is averaging about half of that (17.1), ranking 28th in the league, ahead of only the Saints, Browns, Titans, and Raiders.
The last time the Falcons averaged fewer than 17.1 points per game came in 2007, when Bobby Petrino was the head coach of an offense quarterbacked by Joey Harrington, Byron Leftwich, and Chris Redman.
To even mention the two offenses in the same sentence is nonsensical. And if Raheem Morris truly believes this offense is anywhere close to as talented as the group from 2016, that’s a damning indictment of Zac Robinson — the same man he praised just a couple of days earlier.
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Photo: Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire
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