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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif .– The Los Angeles Rams have announced that they have reached a deal with Raheem Morris to be their new defensive coordinator. Morris replaces Brandon Staley, who was named the Chargers’ new head coach last Sunday.
Morris, 44, brings the Rams 19 years of coaching experience in the NFL on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. He recently served as the Atlanta Falcons’ interim head coach for their last 11 games of the 2020 season after spending the top five as defensive coordinator. The 2020 season was Morris’ sixth with Atlanta and the first as a defensive coordinator.
In 2019, Morris started the season on the offensive end of the ball coaching wide receivers before taking over as the Falcons’ secondary coach. Following that mid-season change, he’s helped Atlanta to finish 6-2 in the last eight games, and his defense has gone from few to take in the first half of the season (4) to the second place in the NFL (16). after week 9. The Falcons’ defense has also improved from 32nd to 10th in sacks, from 32nd to ninth in scoring efficiency and from 31st to sixth in redzone efficiency over the past eight weeks. of the season.
Morris first joined the Falcons in 2015 as an assistant head coach / defensive passing play coordinator. In that first season in Atlanta, Morris helped the Falcons defense allow the third fewest total passing touchdowns in the NFL this season (19). He then moved on to the offensive end of the ball and was an assistant head coach / wide receivers coach for the next three and a half seasons.
Prior to joining the Falcons in 2015, Morris spent the 2012-14 seasons on the Washington soccer team’s coaching staff as a defensive backs coach. The Washington defense finished tied for fifth in the NFL in take-out with 31 in its first season. He also tied a league-high with 94 passes defended and placed fifth in the NFC with a 3.3 intercept rate.
Before arriving in Washington, Morris spent three seasons as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2009-11). He was the youngest NFL head coach in 2009. In 2010, Tampa Bay finished 10-6, marking the best turnaround in franchise history after going 3-13 the previous season.
Morris began his coaching career in the NFL as a defensive quality control coach for the Buccaneers in 2002, becoming a defensive assistant in 2003 before being promoted to assistant defensive back coach (2004-05). After a season as defensive coordinator at Kansas State University (2006), he returned to Tampa Bay for the start of his second stint with the Bucs, starting as a defensive backs coach (2007-08) before becoming their coach. -chief. During that two-year span, Tampa Bay allowed the second-lowest passing yards per game in the NFL (170.5) and also ranked among the league leaders with 22 interceptions.
Morris is well acquainted with Rams head coach Sean McVay, who previously worked with Washington and the Buccaneers for four seasons combined. Morris’s second and final season as the Bucs’ defensive back coach was the same year McVay was an offensive assistant for Tampa Bay (2008). The two also worked together for three seasons with the 2012-14 Washington soccer team – McVay was in his second and third seasons as Washington Tight Ends coach (2012 and 2013) and first as offensive coordinator (2014) while Morris was Washington’s defensive back. coach for each of these three seasons.
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