An eight season playoff drought. That’s what the Atlanta Falcons are observing in the event that they don’t flip the 2025-2026 season right into a profitable one. And whereas the tip of subsequent season remains to be somewhat beneath a yr away, I get the sense that some entrance workplace and training workers figures might be heading out the door ought to the group not make the postseason once more.
Certainly one of them is common supervisor Terry Fontenot, and we right here at The Falcoholic had conversations relating to Fontenot’s future with Atlanta after the tip of final season. Our take was that the signing of Kirk Cousins, the shortage of a playoff berth in his tenure, and the violation of the NFL’s tampering coverage that resulted in a forfeiture of our fifth spherical decide this draft as the primary components that would contribute to Fontenot getting the boot. For now, Fontenot’s job appears to be safe for an additional yr.
That leaves Raheem Morris. Oftentimes for groups, the top coach and common supervisor’s futures have gone hand-in-hand. Examples embrace former head coach Chip Kelly and common supervisor Trent Baalke being fired by the 49ers after tying a franchise worst 2-14 document in 2016, or when former head coach Hue Jackson and Sashi Brown have been fired after their winless 2017 season in Cleveland (Brown was fired after Week 13). Whereas that hasn’t all the time been the case for the Falcons beneath Clean, there’s trigger for concern for those who’re head coach Raheem Morris and Atlanta doesn’t ship a playoff clinching season in 2025.
All through the season, Morris’ head was referred to as for a lot of instances by followers, figuratively talking, in fact. This was resulting from a number of components, however a couple of we are able to slim down have been Morris’ putrid clock administration towards Washington on the finish of each halves, his weekly ambiguous press conferences, and his dedication to a struggling Kirk Cousins, though there could have been stress from the entrance workplace and Clean to maintain Cousins on the sphere.
These components led to a tumultuous first yr as head coach for Morris, and partly as a result of he’s principally nonetheless an unproven head coach sitting at a .382 win share, it looks like a “now or by no means” second for Morris to show that he’s what this group wants for the long run.
Fortunately for Morris, he has a group proprietor and president who’s recognized to run one of the crucial loyal entrance places of work within the league. However with Arthur Smith getting simply three years after a full-scale teardown in his first two years, ought to Morris be involved for his future?
Head teaching tenures beneath Arthur Clean
The top coach is well one of the crucial unstable positions within the league, as yearly at the very least a handful and generally as much as 1 / 4 of the league getting the axe. Below proprietor Arthur Clean and President Wealthy McKay, the group has been very beneficiant with coach firings since Clean assumed possession in 2002. Since that point, the Falcons have fired 5 coaches, and have employed six, which can sound like a excessive quantity however in comparison with the seven fired and 9 employed head coaches the Cleveland Browns racked up in these 22 years, I’d say Atlanta is fairly charitable with head teaching tenures.
The shortest tenure beneath Clean was former head coach Bobby Petrino, who solely coached the group for 13 video games earlier than resigning after our 34-14 loss to the Saints on Monday Night time Soccer. The 13 recreation tenure was not the fault of Clean and had circumstances even Petrino couldn’t see coming, as this was the yr former quarterback Michael Vick was despatched to jail for his involvement in an unlawful canine preventing ring, leaving Petrino to function with journeyman quarterbacks Byron Leftwitch, Chris Redman, and Joey Harrington, all gamers who couldn’t fill the void of a dynamic sign caller like Vick. Nonetheless, Petrino left the group, not the opposite method round.
The longest tenure for a head coach beneath Clean was Mike Smith, who was employed in 2008 and fired after Week 17 of the 2014 season, a complete of seven years with the group which is truthfully a fairly prolonged tenure for a head coach by at the moment’s NFL requirements. I’m unsure if it was as a result of I used to be a child and time simply glided by slower, nevertheless it undoubtedly felt like Smith was the coach for without end. Smith, who lead Atlanta to 5 successful seasons and an NFC Championship berth, had a profitable run as coach, albeit with fairly the supporting forged of gamers behind him.
Maybe the place Clean’s generosity will be seen probably the most is throughout present Commanders head coach Dan Quinn’s tenure in Atlanta. Quinn was the coach for six seasons, and whereas having preliminary success in his second yr main Atlanta to a Tremendous Bowl look, Quinn and the group struggled to rebound within the subsequent years, resulting in a disappointing second spherical playoff exit within the 2017 season and two straight shedding seasons till he was in the end fired after going 0-5 within the midst of his third straight shedding season in 2020.
The shortest tenure during which Clean each employed and fired a coach was Jim Mora from 2004 to 2006, and this might have stood if not for Clean hiring and firing Arthur Smith after three straight 7-10 seasons, which what I imagine has now began a change in entrance workplace mindset. The expertise is within the constructing and it has been for at the very least a few years.
This, mixed with the Falcons playoff drought, is why administration I imagine has taken the strategy of “whoever we rent wants to come back in and domesticate a successful angle now,” as a substitute of the standard “let’s give him a couple of years to develop and construct this group.” Smith’s tenure will be characterised as a stagnant group identification disaster, and it was fairly obvious that he was not the way forward for Atlanta after the Marcus Mariota yr, although he had obtained another yr with main free company spending to attempt to dispel that. I feel the identical may begin being tossed round for Morris ought to he not change his strategy in 2025 and/or get pleasure from extra success.
Why Raheem Morris might be two and accomplished
There are such a lot of issues that go right into a profitable head teaching tenure, and whereas more often than not it boils all the way down to a win-loss document, it additionally depends upon locker room morale, sideline presence, taking accountability, and for higher or worse, reputation with the fan base. It’s one of many causes Dan Campbell saved his job in Detroit after his first two seasons ending up in 3-13-1 and 9-8 data.
So many coaches would have been let go after that first three win yr, and particularly after the group began 1-6 the second yr, and whereas it did assist that Detroit turned it round and improved to 9-8 albeit lacking the playoffs, Campbell being a fan favourite and extremely regarded within the locker room and by possession helped his case for another yr in Detroit, and allowed possession to examine a future with him.
For Morris, I worry he doesn’t have the followers on his aspect even when Clean is in his nook, owing to the early lack of success in Atlanta, problem defending his selections, and sub .400 total head teaching document, I predict Morris’ seat to be hotter than he’d like for his second season. To not point out, Clean and administration interviewed a few of the most wanted free agent coaches of 2024, together with Mike Vrabel, Jim Harbaugh, and 6 time Tremendous Bowl champion Invoice Belichick. With this in thoughts, no matter end Morris has thats wanting a Tremendous Bowl, Atlanta followers will all the time have a “what if…” mindset, casting a darkish cloud over Morris’ tenure that he could not be capable to outrun.
With a seventh straight season lacking the playoffs, the second longest streak in Falcons historical past, Atlanta is determined for change and followers need the expertise on the sphere to translate into manufacturing greater than ever. Being the face of a group is the most important duty in sports activities, and because the head coach, a fanbase is all the time Morris for solutions and options.
Whereas I don’t essentially imagine Morris is a nasty coach by any stretch of the creativeness, I really feel like he should do extra in 2025 not simply with translating expertise into wins, but in addition along with his strategy to media and followers to have the ability to give compelling solutions when questions come up or the group falls brief. It’s one factor to have dangerous stretches and losses, however one other to not be capable to convincingly say the way you’ll get the Falcons by and out of them.
Ought to Morris ship one other uninspiring yr, will Clean and administration see to it that he keep by 2026, or will they pivot sooner than regular to a brand new teaching workers? Tell us what you suppose within the feedback beneath!
