- Falcons owner Arthur Blank fired head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot Sunday
- The firings come after the team missed the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season, Morris’s second in Atlanta.
- Blank’s decision reflects his growing impatience and the desire for a quick turnaround like other NFL teams have seen.
Run it back.
It’s too bad that doesn’t mean Raheem Morris will get a shot at a third season as the Atlanta Falcons head coach. Never mind the momentum of a four-game winning streak to close the season. Or that two years hardly seems like enough time in this case.
Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot, on his post since 2021, were issued their pink slips from team owner Arthur Blank shortly after a 19-17 victory against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday sent, gulp, the Carolina Panthers to the NFC playoffs.
Run it back?
In this case, it means Blank and the Falcons will embark on yet another search for a new head coach. Once again, they will beat the bushes, burn the phone lines and fire up the private jet in search of some coaching (and GM) magic.
Maybe the Falcons should give out T-shirts to mark the occasion that read: Been there, done that.
It is so clear that Blank, 83, is running thin on patience as his football team just ripped off an eighth consecutive season of missing the playoffs. Blank gave his last coach, Arthur Smith, four years. Before that, Dan Quinn had more than five years. Now Morris is two-and-out.
In one sense, it’s understandable that Blank would make a move. Like the Falcons fan base, Blank sees rookie coaches like Liam Coen and Ben Johnson win division titles with the Bucs and Bears, respectively, in their first seasons at the helm and realizes that in this day and age in the parity-influenced NFL, a quick turnaround is indeed possible.
He sees Mike Vrabel return to New England and change the culture ASAP. He sees Mike Macdonald, in Year 2 on his first job, and Sean Payton, in Year 3 on his second job, earn No. 1 seeds in the playoffs with their rebuilt programs.
And he has to wonder: Why can’t we get one of those guys?
Falcons blowing things up faster than they can rebuild
Sure, every circumstance is different and Morris has had some good moments (mixed with the bad) in putting up back-to-back 8-9 finishes. I’m guessing that if he had been given another year, they would have been better?
It’s striking that as the news of Morris’ ouster broke on Sunday night, the Steelers and Ravens were engaged in a win-or-go-home clash for the AFC North title, led by the two longest-tenured NFL coaches with the same team. Mike Tomlin is in his 19th season in Pittsburgh; John Harbaugh is in his 18th season in Baltimore.
Tomlin, for sure, was in no danger of getting fired if the Steelers blew the once-seemingly insurmountable division lead and missed the playoffs. When fans chanted “Fire Tom-lin! Fire Tom-lin!” during an embarrassing loss against Buffalo in late November, the response from the team, according to media, was that if Tomlin didn’t return for a 20th season, it would be his call.
It reminds me of a chat I had with Steelers owner Art Rooney II, tapping into the philosophy that has resulted in just three head coaches since 1969 – Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin. Like his father, Dan, Art is not one to blow it up after a down year or in response to outside noise. Blowing it up means starting over.
The alternative is to make key changes in key positions among assistant coaches and players, and retool from there. You can argue that the Steelers can freshen that approach, given that they haven’t won a playoff game since 2016 and haven’t been to a Super Bowl in 15 years. Then again, another argument is that they have never had even a single losing season under Tomlin and more often than not are at least in the hunt to compete.
The Falcons, on the other hand, tend to blow it up. And this time it goes beyond the coach. Fontenot has acquired some prime talent, including dynamic running back Bijan Robinson, big-play receiver Drake London and the rookie edge rushers, James Pierce and Jalon Walker.
But the GM apparently also drove the pursuit to sign QB Kirk Cousins as a free agent in 2024 – which cost a guaranteed $100 million, weeks before drafting Michael Penix, Jr. with a first-round pick.
Obtaining Cousins wasn’t the bad move, even as he came off a torn Achilles tendon and even if they were targeting Penix. It was the cost, and for an aging player coming off a torn Achilles. The price for Cousins was the drag on the salary cap that prevented the Falcons from pursuing other talent.
The speculation about Fontenot’s status only intensified with a Sports Illustrated report revealing that Blank hired a consulting firm, Sportology, to look into the operation of the Falcons, among other Blank sports entities. That’s not a good sign. And ironically, one of the board members for the firm, former Texans GM Rick Smith, was one of the candidates on the short list the last time Blank sought a GM.
There was also a report by Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer that the Falcons are talking about bringing back former NFL MVP Matt Ryan for a significant front office role.
No, the status quo – and especially another playoff run at home – won’t cut it.
With another search launched, Blank, who will meet with media on Thursday in Atlanta, might have a would-have, could-have, should-have mood about now.
The last time he sought to hire a head coach, Bill Belihick wasn’t the only candidate that Blank interviewed before settling on Morris.
Blank also interviewed Macdonald, Vrabel and Jim Harbaugh. And look at them now. They’re all headed to the playoffs while Blank is running it back.
Maybe they’ll get it right this time. Finally. Then again, given the track record, maybe not.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell