You get the sense that Raheem Morris would have employed Jeff Ulbrich to be his defensive coordinator in early 2024 had it been an possibility, so the truth that he’s the defensive coordinator in 2025 is not any nice shock. As Tre’Shon Diaz wrote final evening, Morris prizes his relationships with coaches he is aware of and trusts, so the rent we half-expected is the one we must have anticipated even because the record of interviews burgeoned previously week.
The final time Morris was the top coach and Ulbrich was the defensive coordinator was in a 2020 season doomed from the outset, with each males thrust into larger-than-anticipated roles after Dan Quinn was fired they usually had been tasked with ending out a season that started 0-5. The modest success that season—Morris and Ulbrich coaxed a 4-7 end out of that workforce to complete with a 4-12 report, and neither one caught round in Atlanta—would have scared many coaches away from going again to the identical properly. Morris just isn’t a type of coaches, for higher or for worse.
Why Ulbrich? The reply is definitely a simple one to offer, however whether or not it’s a satisfying reply is far more of an open query.
Why Morris selected Ulbrich
As I discussed above, Morris is a relationships man. He labored with Ulbrich from 2015-2020 repeatedly, which is a small eternity in an NFL the place teaching staffs break up and get fired regularly. In tough circumstances of their remaining 12 months collectively, Morris and Ulbrich took a protection that had allowed 30-plus factors in 4 of the primary 5 weeks of the season and managed to permit 30-plus simply twice the remainder of the way in which, each in opposition to the eventual Tremendous Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If that stint and that relationship didn’t make an influence on Morris, Ulbrich wouldn’t be Atlanta’s defensive coordinator now. However Ulbrich can also be far more skilled than he was when he took over that function in 2020, as a result of he’s spent the previous 4 years because the defensive coordinator (and finally interim head coach) for a gifted Jets protection. He and Robert Saleh had that group buzzing alongside in 2022 and 2023, however with Saleh fired and Ulbrich taking on in 2024, issues went downhill final 12 months.
Is Ulbrich a stable coordinator? I’d say his ends in Atlanta and New York recommend that sure, he’s, and in the event you give him high quality items he’ll doubtless offer you a stable protection. However whereas Morris will certainly communicate to Ulbrich’s acumen, that is no less than as a lot about the place Morris and Ulbrich share widespread floor on method, belief, and imaginative and prescient for the franchise. Morris noticed Lake flame out and concluded he wanted somebody who each is aware of him and is aware of what it’s wish to be an NFL coordinator, and Ulbrich was probably the most skilled candidate in each these regards.
The 2020 season’s outcomes additionally doubtless performed a job in one other approach.
This time, Morris and Ulbrich can plan forward
On one hand, the Falcons are restricted when it comes to {dollars} and draft picks proper now, making a complete defensive teardown and rebuild a problem. Alternatively, there are avenues to including each picks (commerce down!) and cap area (restructures and cuts) that ought to enable each coaches to enact a imaginative and prescient for this protection.
You’ll keep in mind that wasn’t an possibility in 2020. Hamstrung by years of Thomas Dimitroff and Dan Quinn working to maintain the core of an more and more creaky former Tremendous Bowl workforce collectively, these Falcons had been restricted to 1 ill-fated defensive splash (Dante Fowler). Morris and Ulbrich, who went from defensive coordinator and linebackers coach to move coach and defensive coordinator in a single fell swoop, didn’t have the chance to place collectively their very own procuring record for the ultimate 11 video games of the 2020 season. They simply needed to work with what they’d, and the truth that it was higher than what Quinn and Morris achieved within the first few weeks of the season is one thing Morris clearly remembers properly.
This day trip, the duo will no less than get a shot to work collectively to craft a protection that they could be capable to squint and say resembles one they need. Morris had a 12 months of watching this protection in motion and a few bye week tinkering from his finish to provide him a greater concept of the place he needs to take this factor, and Ulbrich is hopping over from 4 years operating the New York Jets protection with concepts of his personal. This might be much less slapdash than 2020, which as I hope you’ve gathered by now could be the pivot level I see this rent revolving round.
Will it work?
I’ll be blunt: It’s nearly actually going to be higher, on steadiness, than the 2024 Falcons protection. A late run from the go rush and a handful of spectacular efforts in opposition to the Eagles, Chiefs, and Chargers couldn’t obscure the truth that the unit was as step sluggish, a contact missing at each stage, and never significantly well-coached. Ulbrich is way extra skilled and competent than Jimmy Lake from any angle you wish to have a look at him from, and whereas hiring Lake within the first place is an early catastrophe for Morris, he’s more likely to belief Ulbrich to run the protection and may hopefully concentrate on enhancing his personal in-game administration in a approach that must also be a constructive after his struggles down the stretch in that regard.
Ulbrich has not proven, other than arguably that 2020 stint, that he can considerably elevate what he has. What he has proven is that he can pull collectively a solid-to-quite-good protection with the suitable items. And that brings us to our subsequent level.
I’ll be blunt once more: I’m undecided how a lot enchancment this workforce can count on until the Falcons can work some minor miracles when it comes to expertise acquisition and improvement this spring and summer time. Getting somebody who has expertise and respect from gamers and his head coach is a step in the suitable path, however the Falcons are going to shed some expertise from an already talent-deficient protection this offseason and are going to have to switch that expertise successfully.
If you must lose David Onyemata and/or Grady Jarrett, it’s going to be incumbent on Ulbrich, Morris, and whoever the brand new defensive position coach is to teach up the likes of Ruke Orhorhoro, Brandon Dorlus, and whoever else the workforce can add. They’re going to wish to get far more out of a (hopefully wholesome) Troy Andersen, JD Bertrand, and possibly Nate Landman if the linebacker group goes to be something however Kaden Elliss and the Lively Liabilities. They’re going to wish to get Arnold Ebiketie to the subsequent stage and off to a stronger begin, get Bralen Trice again from damage and making an influence, and cobble collectively a helpful secondary exterior of A.J. Terrell and Jessie Bates. There’s appreciable work to be completed for this entrance workplace that Morris and Ulbrich could have a say in, however in addition they must take the gamers already on the roster and get a lot, far more out of them than all however a small handful managed in 2024. That’s a tall order, and one that’s going to check the mettle of each males.
On one stage, Ulbrich is more likely to work out within the sense that he’s nearly actually going to be an improve over Jimmy Lake, which this workforce badly wanted. In a broader sense, Ulbrich (and Morris in flip) might want to get far more than modest enchancment out of this protection to make the 2025 season successful and guarantee each males keep of their positions past the upcoming season. It is possible for you to to speak me into that with a profitable offseason and a powerful summer time, however earlier than that, it’s vaporware.
If Ulbrich and Morris can enact one thing larger and higher than they managed throughout these hurried, anxious days as interim coaches in 2020, then they’ve the prospect to be celebrated as sensible hires and far of the criticism and wariness that’s set to comply with them via the spring and summer time might be both laughed about or forgotten. If not, each the brand new defensive coordinator and the coach who has positioned his belief in his previous buddy will doubtless discover their reunion no extra fruitful than the primary go-around.
