Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris speaks on Week 1 matchup vs Pittsburgh

Of the 53 man roster. Yes. Um You always keep, it's not, it's, you know, realistically DL you gotta put it on a different format nowadays because all the new rules that's been put in place, right? It's like it's the best 69 people that you can keep on your roster because of all the new rules. Some of the things that you gotta adapt and adjust to, whether it's a day off or the media, you can't come in or it's having 69 players with people that you can flex up on rosters in order to form your 48 man roster that's allowed on game day or 49 if you keep the third quarterback. So all of those things, um, are always a part of it. So like, um, decisions always made to keep the best people in place in order to find ways to win games as much as we can come on in. Josh, you're ok. You're not fine today. DL just absolutely took all the fines away from everybody before this press conference started. So you're good. Yes. Yeah. And um, uh, the practice squad after you that, that hustle and bustle to, to get your, get people back and, uh, pick up people uh, outside of the, the, the, um, the rim of the 90 men you already had. So the hustle and bustle outside of the 90 man r that we already have is being done throughout the whole term of training camp. You know, we got all these young scouts upstairs, Akeem and, and uh, Ben and all those guys and Sal and all those guys that just scour through rosters and they do such a great job of watching and evaluating tape and looking at it all and the neighbor to report their reports to Ryan Pace and it goes to Cal Smith and obviously it gets to Terry Font now and you know, those guys had just a rougher time as we do in the draft of staying up here the last couple of days and really discussing and finding out what best fits us and how we go about that process. It's been, um I, I really respect the amount of work that our organization puts into, um, the bottom and the top of our roster, um to, to formulate what we're able to come up with. Like I said, man, forming that 69 players that can be on your football team, um is, is a special occasion, is, is, is awesome to watch and you get the information from the other guys when I can sit here with my coaches and evaluate the guys that we have in the roster, um They're able to evaluate the rest of the league and find out what's best fits us. Um, who we like to bring in and who we like to see, um, whether it be now or whether it be future you. Uh I think it's always good to go through that with those guys in your, in the Super Bowl year. How many players were up? I know when Green Bay with mccarthy, you said that they had so many injuries that year with 78 players that, you know, uh played in a game or were up and active. Um So people look at the 48 but you really kind of got to have a plus, you know, it's just, it's just like I said, man, like, you know, you guarantee 69 guys at the beginning of the season. And as we know, this game is, is historically, you lose people just throughout it. We talked about how many quarterback plays uh last year alone, I think it was 66 or whatever the case may be quarterbacks, right? So just imagine the other positions on the stuff that you go through with attrition and people that are gonna come back and how this thing always circle back to those people and the people that, you know, and all those type of things. So like that work um is just critical. So like, uh the things that our scouts do behind the scenes, the things that our coaches are passed, that the things that they pass to our coaches, excuse me. Um All that, all that work is all critical, uh just throughout the process, they let II I got, like I said, so much respect for all of our um evaluators and all of our people in our front office that's able to go through that process, uh with Terry and all those guys and be able to put us in a position to have the best people in our ross that we possibly can have. And people make a lot about initial 53 men. But there are a lot of names who meant a lot to um your preseason that are on this practice on the squad. So, Carlos Washington, Kevin King, Chris Blair, how important was it to you to keep those guys around? Very important? Like, like I mentioned Tory, like I don't even call it the practice squad. I just call it the extension of our roster and I know what is, I know that's the, the, the term. But you know, like I, I got so much, I told those guys yesterday I got so much respect for all those guys, the guys that you just named um included with the other guys that we got that I feel really confident other than people that I wouldn't know right off the back of being able to flex guys up and exactly what role they'll be able to play for us right now. And those roles obviously get increased as you go throughout the season and you're able to prepare and practice and do different things. But, uh, like we talked about injuries happen and you gotta have people up. Um, and you got the, the tool of being able to flex people up nowadays and that's really made it an extension of our, our roster, especially getting three flexors a person. So you gotta make real decisions whether you put in 153 or not. I, I can't remember if this was you or Terry that said y'all would do this exercise where you would write down the best 53 men on the 90 man roster and regardless of position, just who are the best players, I'm curious what that exercise looked like and how close this initial 53 man like relate to that. That's definitely Terry exercise. Uh For, for me, II, I sit in the, I sit in the uh my office and I kind of do my own deal and then uh we collaborate together and see how close we are and a lot of time is really close. And then that brings up the ultimate discussion on how you keep the best people. Um And I know I can rely on Terry and Kyle and Ryan to have the best ways and avenues and places and uh ways we can keep the best people on our roster and, and, and that's when it comes to listening, that, that skill that we talked about and what's different between Raheem Morris now and then, um, being able to listen to those guys and figure out how do we do those things and have opinions. But at the same time, be able to listen to some of the people that's putting those positions that go through that every single day, we talked to Kirk during training camp and he was kind of talking about the general anxiety that you have this time of year and getting ready for week one and just making sure you are on your P's and Q's with everything that's being installed. What's it like for a coach? Especially when you get to this point, you know, you're just post cuts and you've got a week and a half before that first game. Do you kind of feel that same, like nervous, not nervous, but just that it's ok to say nervousness of, do we have everything ready? No, it's, it's not. Um you know, you prepare for these moments and like for coaches really, this is like the best part, you know, like we just, you make the transition from evaluator, you know, to game planner and you make that transition and you feel really good and comfortable with the amount of stuff that you have. And I've been fortunate enough to be doing it for a while that you, you start off. I remember the first day of ot a days and you feel like you don't have enough and then you feel that nervous energy that you gotta get this stuff in, you gotta get it installed. And by the time you get to this point, you start to feel really comfortable and you got like you, you're fully loaded and you're ready to go out there and prepare and play and game plan and watch the other opponent and really come up with different ideas and schemes and things that you can do in order to go out there and dictate terms, so to speak. And like, so for coaches, this becomes the really, you know, you, you, I don't even know how to say it, but you get real tough, you know, like in, in your office by yourself, you know, then that, that nervous energy is able to come out, you know, once the national anthem goes when that first game starts and then once that happens, you know, it's go time and um I noticed the Pittsburgh Steelers have got a, got a flight. Uh they're coming regardless and uh you better be ready. Can you confirm, uh he is uh getting sent to still in the process? Uh So, um, you know, we'll see where that lands out and then obviously when that's able to be talked about when it's not a process anymore, um we'll, we'll do that, sorry, Mark coach during uh night cap. Uh last weekend, you made a couple of comments about what winning teams do and you know how you want to form the team's identity and moving the needle. Are you satisfied that the players that you have now in the series three man roster can do all of those things or I'm really um more than satisfied. Um You always are trying to upgrade at all times and it just keeps a subtle edge, right? That, that competitive edge around your team where everybody's competing, uh where everybody's trying to be the best version of themselves in order to go out and compete at the highest level every single day. Um Doing night cap was a lot of fun with uh Shannon and Ocho and being able to talk about some reminiscent things. But th that, that is like uh the essence of ball when you get a chance to talk to former players, I always tell David, I like talking to former players. I don't talk to DL by himself because I always love talking to former players when we talk about football and those moments and those things and how you get winning teams and when it happens and, and, and the things that you go through when that stuff happens, it's just so much fun. Um just exciting, exciting times, but I feel really good about it. It's OK, Josh, it don't matter, you can ask it twice, whatever Kirk's notes. How closely have you looked at the notes that, oh, you don't look at him. I, I kind of, I kind of sneak and peek at him like I pry, he sits, he sits right in the front of the room and he's, he's maniacal. Right. He has his notes in front of him and he's throwing his plays and they're really small and he's just going through and I just kind of laugh and shake my head like this guy's sick, you know. And, um, but it's, it's, it's really cool to look at when we just watch a professional, you know, and how he works and how he goes to his process and it's, it's worked for him clearly, you know, it's worked for him really well up until this point. And, um, I, I just, I, I just marvel at it because these become stories that coaches can tell to their Children. These become stories that coach, coaches can tell to the people that they coach moving forward and, and, and, and how well it was done, you know, no different than when you're talking about former coaches that come to mind for me, like Amani Kiffin or Mike Tomlin and some of the processes that they went through. Some of the things that we did out in L A, uh, when you got a chance to watch a guy like Eric Garber, how you coach whiteout and things of that nature, but all the people that you've been around, you gain those experience is no different than the players, you know, eventually that will become my idea for some young quarterback telling him how to do it because that's what Kirk cousin did. And those stories become legendary and, and, and if you can just go, just take a peek at it and it is really cool to see that Michael. Do you watch this and copy that or do you have to let Michael sort of organically develop his own? I think, I think I should be, you know, you kind of organically develop your own system, but it's definitely good to see somebody go through their process and what it looked like. And then you still think that that that works for me, you know, and you find a way to do that and you can't make it false enthusiasm that Michael does that. But I think it has to be something that maybe he captures from him. He may capture that he may capture medium presence, he may capture how to command the huddle. He can capture some of the other things that Kirk does like yesterday. Uh We were kind of off a little bit and Kirk in flexion of his voice just absolutely change the dynamic of the practice within play three. And you just noticed that from the outside looking in and all those things, you know, when you got a chance to get some real good coaching points and some real good evaluation points from Michael quarterbacks there, somebody else that, you know, the man, you know, most of those guys that are, are, are psycho, they got their own rhythm and routine and, and they're, and they're obsessed and, uh, I was around Matthew Stafford and really, I gotta put Cooper Cup in this, this, this category as well where they had this psycho routine where they kind of met it. I, I don't even know what time it was, but I know I was walking through and they'd be sitting in that wide receiver slash quarterback room, whatever it was with their maniacal sick kind of pattern that they did every single week uh in that room and, and, and, you know, I always swerve around because I didn't wanna walk through and disturb him and sometimes I just kind of went through and kind of gave him something just to make it just to normalize him a little bit. But, um, I, I don't know about the poker chips. You gotta ask that I didn't see the poker chips last year, the, the last couple of years I was out with them. Um, but I did see what time he got to work. Um And I remember one time it was just kind of a joke. This is during COVID, I believe they moved the coffee machine into the team room and I would walk by sometimes I see him in the team room and, and I thought he was just like going through his plays and all the stuff in his head and I said something to him one day. He was like, no, I was just sitting there getting coffee. I was like, oh, so I thought, I found, I thought I stumbled into some sick training, but it was just him getting coffee in the morning in the training room. You're talking about, uh, kind of transitioning that game planning and you've got familiarity obviously with both your coordinators, but for the rest of your staff who maybe you haven't worked with before, are there steps you can take during the training camp in the preseason to get your game planning process? Kind of, yeah, certainly. I think as a head coach, when you get a chance to, um, move through accordingly and just kind of see where people's strengths grow and then you kind of see where people are comfortable giving their opinion. I think all of those things and, and, and then really is up to me to really encourage that behavior. You know, I can talk about l you know, like I could tell you exactly what I told him. Um, just throughout the process, he has this amazing culture that he's formed in our O line room. And I said, hey, man, you gotta bring that outside of the O line room and he's been able to bring that culture to the tight ends to our running backs and to our half line drill and the excitement that he able to bring outside of that room with that O line where they're got their own little cultish type behavior that's starting to spread throughout the team in our offense really speed up. The ball is not a saying on a hat. It is the, the, the truth and the statement of how you run a football. And like, those are the things that you wanna encourage guys to do as you walk around, even to the coaches that you didn't know as well as you get to know those guys now. And like, I think we've been formulating that over the last four months and I think those things will come out as we get further and further down the road. Can you describe the difference between last week and this week? Not just the amount of players and people that are kind of around the building, but also just the vibe now that intensity shifts to kind of going towards the one, you know, last week when you're talking about the competitive nature of people fighting for those roster spots and really the evaluation process for the coaches and really the guys trying to show what they can do the best. And now is like, uh, you're just trying to get even more specific in your role clarity in order to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers because nothing else matters, right? So when we're going out, now, those are the things and those are the people that are finding those roles and what they have to do in order to go out there to give us the best shot to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. So I think the clarity kind of clears up for us. I think it kind of slows down. I think some of the things that you're starting to do now is not, is not throw up against the wall and see if it stick. It is direct arrows and, and darts being thrown at very, uh, small detail, precision, precise targets. That way I can just grab it. Sorry to, sorry, I thought you were done. You always cut me off. It's OK. I do. I got this dramatic pauses. That's kind of fake. I've been watching too much. Denzel Washington guys. All right, I'm going now you can't handle the truth. Tori. No, go ahead, Tori. Sorry, Josh. Uh Matthew Juno and Justin Simmons have been here now for a couple of weeks, uh, when you look at where they are and they're, um, kind of integrating them into this roster and into this team. What are some moments with them as you're kind of walking around the building that really sticks out, that makes you excited that you have those two guys here. Now, did you say Matthew and just Justin? Right? OK. So Matthew, um, he's a little further along obviously because he was practicing all this time and out where he was at. And so we got him already beefed up into his rep counts. We got him beefed up into full individual, but the personality of Matthew just comes out more and more every single day and he is live wire. He is a guy who knows a lot of football. He is high intelligence. He is high instinctual. Um, and he brings a little bit of the edge and he brings a little bit more fun to a practice even when you get him and you trick him on something. He's able to very loudly and very clearly articulate that to the offense. Oh, I knew that was coming. But you got me and it's, it's, um, it's a lot of fun with him where Justin's being kind of, I'm kind of just letting the rope out slowly with him and now we're starting to get to some team plays and do some of those different things and you're starting to see really the intelligence of Justin and how fast he's able to pick it up and communicate with Jesse or Grant or whoever is out there or even Alfred at the nickel spot and some of those spots and how detailed he is in his work and just a true, absolute professional. So there are different points. Um But the two guys personality are really ringing out and the character behind both of them in their own different way are really starting to mesh well with our football team. I do, you know, um um, how much that'll be determined within the next couple of weeks and the preparation, uh, that we move forward when we get into the Steelers preparation. But, um, I, I certainly think he's gonna be one of the major contributors to us, um, throughout, throughout d'angelo Malone to make that 53 man roster. And what does he mean? Just like the team? Yeah, let's not even, let's not even kid ourselves. You guys got a chance to see what d'angelo means to the football team on every Friday and Saturday that he went out there and absolutely dominated the kicking phase. Um, end game, you know, so like you guys got a better picture of that than most, um, being able to watch those games every single week. So like, you know, these are the, these are the factors where, I mean, you know, some people say, you know, you don't put much value into the preseason games. No, I do just in different areas and, and d'angelo Malone was one of those guys that we talked about that role, clarity. He found a role in a niche and he made it that he was undeniable that you had to find a way to keep him on the football team so he can continue to do that at a very high level. Does Mike to know that you do a spot on impression of him? He absolutely does. Um, he's told the story many of times, but he I was his assistant and, um, I ran, he's always, he's, he's always been developing, he's trying to develop me this week through the media trying to give me stuff that I should be working on. But, um, he's, um, he's always been a guy that's a big part of development and it's kind of what we've been as we kind of grown up in coaching, whether it was Rod Marinelli, whether it was Mike Tomlin, what whatever the case may be when you have younger coaches and people around, you wanna give them real, real clarity, so to speak again. So I always ran the, the meetings after practice and I ran the meetings and I was sometimes, uh doing his voice and he would lean outside of his office, which was a closet and he'd go, hey, you imitating me or you coaching, you know, and, um, and, and, and we all laugh all the players knew, um, but it, it really wasn't really, uh, really picking on him. It really was emulating some greatness and some of the things he was able to do, like nobody can hold the form like Mike Tomlin, uh within the media and, and, and everything he deals with the, um, with the verbiage, with his, um, his unique skill set, um with his spot on uh accurate descriptions of the things that he's talking about. So, um it's less about me picking on him. It's more about me, uh really emulating really good things and stealing it. And I've been able to do that over the years and it just so happens in week one man. Uh, he's gray matter and he knows it if I'm remembering correctly, you credited him with like, showing you that initiative to like, look at both the offense and the defense and, um, get that experience on both sides. What did that look like for you? Early on you are spot on. He was one of the first people to even make me even think that way, you know, because he had played offense in, in college at way and Mary at the Tribe, as he would say, he played at the tribe and he was a receiver and when I met him, he was a defensive back coach and he looked at it from an offensive lens and almost everything that we, we did. And then like I said, I went to a very um uh upfront place where you had no egos and Jon Gruden allows to be in offensive installs and be able to watch him with his quarterback detail and all those things. So we were nosy. So we attended as many of those as we possibly could. So he was definitely a part of the major part of the encouraging factor of even diving into the offense before I had ever, ever even coached it. You know, the first opportunity I got to coach, it was here with Dan Quinn and, and, and really that was full force, no hesitation to go into it because of those moments with Mike Tomlin and thinking about the background knowledge that you wanna have, being able to coach on defense, having knowledge to coach on offense. And it certainly serves me well, uh, right now in the position that I'm in now.