Atlanta Falcons Grasping For Straws with Coaching Shakeup

The Atlanta Falcons announced an unconventional reorganization of their coaching staff. The shakeup shows that the team is grasping at straws, attempting to do anything and everything to get a victory.

The Atlanta Falcons surprised the entire NFL with a shuffling of their coaching staff, the team recently announced. Atlanta altered the duties of three assistant coaches.

Raheem Morris moves from wide receiver coach to secondary coach. Dave Brock switches from coaching running backs to coach the wide receiver corps. Bernie Parmalee changes roles from assistant special teams coach to running backs coach.

The moves are peculiar in the middle of a season, but with the Atlanta Falcons in the midst of a disappointing 1-7 campaign, Dan Quinn is pulling out all of the stops, in an attempt to jump-start his team, spark a winning streak, and save his job.

Raheem Morris

Raheem Morris is the most notable coach to change positions. He is one of three former NFL head coaches to currently serve on the Atlanta Falcons staff. He is the product of Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy who formerly led the Indianapolis Colts and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Morris was a defensive assistant for Tampa during their 2003 Super Bowl championship. This helped him eventually become the team’s head coach in 2009, a position he held for three seasons before being dismissed for a lack of winning.

After a three-year stint coaching defensive backs for the Washington Redskins, Raheem Morris took a job with the Atlanta Falcons as a defensive backs coach and assistant head coach, on Dan Quinn’s initial coaching staff in 2015.

Morris was reassigned in 2016, assuming the role of wide receivers coach during the Atlanta Falcons 2016 Super Bowl run. He held the position for 3.5 seasons, before the recent move back to coaching cornerbacks and safeties.