Atlanta Falcons’ Raheem Morris Near Bottom of CBS Sports HC Rankings

Raheem Morris still had a long way to go in improving his outlook in the eyes of the experts. CBS Sports writer Cody Benjamin placed him in the bottom rung of his NFL head coaching rankings. He was placed in the third and bottom tier, which labels head coaches as unproven or underwhelming. 

All coaches in this tier have a chance to redeem themselves, but they have to prove it. 

Within the tier, he was ranked 27th overall. Of the coaches ranked under Morris - Brian Callahan, Brian Schottenheimer, Brian Daboll, Kellen Moore and Aaron Glenn - three are first-time head coaches. 

In Morris’ case, it’s an underwhelming situation rather than an unproven one. It comes down to not meeting expectations. 

“For a team that was supposed to be a quarterback away going into 2024, the young Falcons have a lot of questions after Morris' situational calls contributed to another non-playoff season in Atlanta,” Benjamin said.

Morris had the Falcons sitting at 6-3 with a two-game lead in the NFC South a little over halfway through the 2024 season. Then, it all fell apart. Kirk Cousins, who was the starting quarterback at the time, injured his right shoulder and elbow against the New Orleans Saints in Week 10, but kept it hidden from the staff. 

Now, there may be some debate over whether or not Morris truly knew Cousins was injured, but whether or not he knew, Morris took far too long to bench Cousins. Cousins had a five-week stretch where he threw just one touchdown to nine interceptions (including a four-interception game in a one-score loss to the Los Angeles Chargers) during which Atlanta went just 1-4 and fell to 7-7 on the season. Morris took far too long to switch quarterbacks, and it ended up costing the Falcons their season.

On top of that, Morris had some questionable decision-making late in games; the most prominent example that comes to mind is the decision not to call a timeout in the Week 17 matchup against the Commanders on Sunday Night Football. 

After scoring the game-tying touchdown with 79 seconds left in the game, the Falcons' defense forced a three-and-out. Atlanta now had 40 seconds and two timeouts to get a field goal and win the game. Michael Penix Jr got the ball on Atlanta’s 19-yard line and delivered a 25-yard strike to Darnell Mooney. The Falcons had gotten the ball to almost midfield with just one play. However, even with two timeouts in his pocket, Morris did not use one. Atlanta did not get another playoff until there were only 17 seconds left on the clock. They went on to miss the game-winning field goal and lose the game in overtime.

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