Captain Fear
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- Mar 20, 2019
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At only 32, Raheem Morris became the head coach of the Buccaneers. He got only three seasons to try to improve a team that was in gradual and inevitable decline.
Now, more than a decade later, Morris gets 11 chances to audition for a second chance. He’s 1-0, with 10 to go.
Sunday’s 40-23 win over Minnesota capped a crazy week for Morris, which started with the former defensive coordinator going to bed on Sunday night, before all hell broke loose with the firing of coach Dan Quinn and G.M. Thomas Dimitroff. When Morris woke up, he was the head coach.
“We had lost a tough game, so like normally coaches soak ourselves into a hard sleep,” Morris told PFT after Sunday’s game. “So I was asleep by the time it happened and didn’t find out until the next morning.”
He had six days to get ready, losing a day of practice on Thursday to a COVID-19 scare and ultimately having both defensive line coaches and defensive lineman John Cominsky unavailable after a Saturday positive test. As the Falcons often do, they built a lead. As they often fail to do, the Falcons held the lead.
“It was about being aggressive, and our offense absolutely stayed aggressive,” Morris said regarding the team’s approach after getting ahead. “They stayed on it. We were able to make some decisions to go for it on fourth down. They absolutely capitalized on a few of them. . . . I really believe they just went out there and closed out the game as opposed to waiting to let it end. We wanted to go out and finish today and did a nice job of that.”
They did such a nice job that, if it continues, Morris will be a viable candidate to take the job in 2021. For now, though, the possibility hasn’t emerged in his discussions with owner Arthur Blank and CEO Rich McKay.
“I really haven’t even talked to them about those things,” Morris said. “We just talked about the next opportunity that’s in front of us.”
Is Morris frustrated that it’s been so long before his name has surfaced in serious discussion about becoming a head coach again?
“People always ask that question, but anytime you’re doing anything in the National Football League, you’re one of the 32 best at whatever you do,” Morris explained. “It’s just a privilege to be in this league, and it’s a privilege I won’t ever take for granted. And I’ll make the most of every single opportunity that we do get, whether it be a position coach, whether it be a coordinator, whether it be a head coach. Whatever those situations are, you just take advantage of them.”
Morris took full advantage of it on Sunday. So what’s next, with the Lions coming to town?
“You go back and repeat, man, you’ve gotta reset yourself,” Morris said. “You’ve got to go back and get a great Wednesday practice in, you’ve got to get a great Thursday practice in if you can get it or whatever the case may be, come out and practice Friday and try to re-duplicate what we just did.”
If he can do it again and again and again, Morris will be coaching somewhere in 2021, and not as a position coach or a coordinator.