Fire Up the Hot Board: Raheem Morris Is OUT as Falcons Head Coach

Wow. I didn't think Arthur Blank was going to pull the trigger, but Raheem Morris has been fired after two 8-9 seasons as the Atlanta Falcons' head coach.

It seemed like things were going to remain stagnant after Atlanta closed the season on a four-game winning streak after being eliminated from playoff contention, but thankfully, this team with a ton of young talent will have new leadership heading into 2026.

All the Falcons needed to do to make the playoffs was win one game from this group: a 27-24 loss to the three-win Jets, a 30-27 overtime loss to the Panthers, a 31-25 overtime loss to the Colts, a 24-23 loss to the Patriots or a 23-20 loss to the Buccaneers. A well-coached team would have won three or four of those games, let alone just one.

The only downside to this move is there doesn't seem to be any one must-have candidate looming. When Atlanta hired Morris, it interviewed Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel, Jim Harbaugh and Joe Brady before doing so. Brady is still available, but hiring one of those first few guys sure would have been nice.

The Falcons' offense is going to be a mess as long as this quarterback situation is what it is, but this defense has incredible young talent all over the place. James Pearce Jr. should win Defensive Rookie of the Year after putting up a 10.5-sack campaign in his first year. Jalon Walker and Xavier Watts were equally impressive in their first seasons. Just go get me a hard-nosed defensive coach who's going to suffocate people.

All the players seem to love Morris and I'm sure he's a great guy, but this team needed new leadership. It's been five straight years of 7-10 or 8-9 and this roster is simply too good to have that happen again.