On Thursday afternoon, the Atlanta Falcons announced that Raheem Morris will be returning to the organization as their new head coach.

Morris – who was the former interim head coach for the Falcons back in 2020 – is coming over from the Los Angeles Rams where he won a Super Bowl as their defensive coordinator in 2021. 

And Falcons fans, this is the right hire.

Now let me explain what I mean by the word "right."

I feel that this hire is not the best hire we could have made for the head coach position, but also not the worst.

No. 1, Morris is a guy who the players want to play for and that is evident in the reactions of the players on social media.

The likes of Grady Jarrett, Kyle Pitts and Jessie Bates III have all chimed in on social media approving Morris’ hire. Coaches around the league such as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and Rams head coach Sean McVay also have glaring reviews of Morris, too.

This should be the most crucial part of hiring any coach. This is why coaches like Dan Campbell for the Detroit Lions and Mike McDaniel for the Miami Dolphins succeed. No, they weren’t former coordinators or have the most impressive on paper resume, but they are leaders of men. 

Morris falls in that same category.

No. 2, Morris is familiar with the Falcons system.

Morris knows the building well, as he coached in a number of roles from 2015-2020. A fair amount of players are still on the roster from when Morris was last here. 

Continuity and familiarity in the building will gain a lot of respect and decrease the growing pains that tend to come with first year head coaches.

And No. 3, Morris is a former head coach.

He’s not a first-time ever head coach. 

From 2009-2011 he was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach when he was in his mid-30’s. He went 17-31 – largely unimpressive on paper – but did shine in 2010 when he went 10-6 with Josh Freeman as his quarterback (there’s a throwback name).

It has been over a decade since Morris has had his last permanent head coaching opportunity, and the rapport he has gotten from the other teams he has worked for has all been positive. 

In fact, I am of the opinion that Morris should’ve been strongly considered as head coach back in 2020 due to the positive rapport he was getting. He’s that type of guy.

So who were the best and worst hires?

The best hire we could’ve made would’ve been to hire a young, offensive guru who would bring the best out of whoever would be taking over as the starting quarterback.

Guys like Ben Johnson or Bobby Slowik would have fit this category perfectly and both would have been guys that made the Falcons better. 

You see, when the Falcons hired Arthur Smith in 2021, he was the best hire available. His ability to transform a regressing Ryan Tannehill and make him into a top 10 quarterback was nothing short of impressive. But that didn’t translate as a head coach.

Arthur Smith didn’t fit the identity that fans nor players wanted for the Atlanta Falcons. He wasn’t the right guy for the job.

I had long said both on and off the record that Bill Belichick would have been the worst hire for the Falcons, and I stand by that.

While Belichick may be one of the greatest head coaches of all time – if not the greatest of all time – we have to consider that he is 71 years old. Good friend of Belichick and former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, just retired at 72. Ditto Pete Carroll, the now-former Seattle Seahawks coach.

The current oldest head coach in football now is Mack Brown at 72 with the North Carolina Tar Heels. The oldest in the NFL is Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs at 65.

Another thing to consider is that Belichick was intent on having football operations say in whatever team he wanted to coach for. This was reportedly part of the discussions that took place in the two interviews with the team.

So do we want someone who’s 71 years old and potentially past his prime to come in and change the operations and culture of the team – just so we can do it all over again in two- three years?

I’ll let everyone take their own answer on that. But mine is a resounding, "No."

Instead, I’ll take a guy who has made the best out of the worst so many times over. I’ll take a guy who has familiarity with the city of Atlanta and the culture of this Falcons football team. I’ll take a guy who the players want to play for.

I’ll take Raheem Morris…the right guy for the job.