John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

There are a lot of expectations for Raheem Morris in his first season with the Falcons.

Arthur Blank didn’t decide to fire Arthur Smith to be patient with Morris. Atlanta’s new head coach may not be looking for a new job next offseason if he doesn’t deliver in 2024, but the expectation is improvement.

The Falcons are coming off a third straight 7-10 finish, and Raheem Morris takes over a roster that is talented, yet underachieving. The first task will be to upgrade the quarterback position.

The play from Atlanta’s signal callers ultimately cost his predecessor his job. If Morris puts forth another half-measure, his job might come into question as well. However, if he nails the acquisition with Terry Fontenot, the Falcons will immediately become one of the more competitive teams in the conference.

With the new league year a couple of weeks away, it’s still unclear what path Fontenot and Morris will take, but oddsmakers are confident that Atlanta’s new head coach will end up being successful in 2024.

According to DraftKings on February 26th, Raheem Morris has the third-best odds to take home the 2024 Coach of the Year award. Jim Harbaugh is the odds-on favorite at +550, followed by Matt LaFleur at +850, and Raheem Morris at +1000, then Mike Macdonald at +1400, and Shane Steichen and Demco Ryans both at +1500 odds.

The Falcons hiring of Raheem Morris was met with overwhelming praise. Les Snead, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Mike Tomlin, and Jalen Ramsey are some of the biggest names in the game that rejoiced in the hire.

If his peers and Vegas oddsmakers are correct, the Falcons landed a pretty damn good head coach.

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