This past February, former Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris reunited with his old friend Kyle Shanahan as the San Francisco 49ers new defensive coordinator.
The two have known each other for years as they worked together during stints with three different teams.
Their relationship started in 2004 in Tampa Bay where Morris was an assistant defensive backs coach and Shanahan was hired as an assistant coach.
Morris then became the head coach of the Bucs, taking over for Jon Gruden 2009. But after only one winning season in three years, he was fired. He then traveled north to Washington to become the Commanders’ defensive backs coach, reuniting with Shanahan. After three seasons, he headed to Atlanta, teaming up with Shanahan again until the latter was tapped for the 49ers head coaching job in 2017.
Shanahan tried to bring Morris in as his defensive coordinator but Atlanta blocked the move. In 2021, DeMeco Ryans was promoted as San Francisco’s defensive coordinator so Morris took the same job with the Rams and won a Super Bowl in 2024.
Afterward, Atlanta brought Morris back, this time as the team’s new head coach, a rare second head coaching chance for Black coaches. he held until this past season when the Falcons fired him after two consecutive 8-9 seasons.
But now he’s in San Francisco and reunited with his longtime friend.
“Kyle was someone that you love working with, love working for,” Morris said earlier this week at his first press conference. “Kyle’s definitely one of those people you always want to work with. From our time being in, whether it was Tampa the original time we worked together, when we were both young puppies, or the second time we worked together when we were in D.C. and being able to be around his father, be around the Shanahan family, the tradition and the culture that they’re able to form really molded me throughout my career since I was around the Shanahans to be honest.”
Although he will be the 49ers fifth DC in the past five years, the team going through Ryans, Steve Wilks, Nick Sorensen and Saleh again last season before he was hired as the head coach of the Titans, Morris brings experience and a Super Bowl title to the Bay Area.
Morris inherits a team loaded with talent, including Pro Bowlers Fred Warner and Nick Bosa, who are both recovering from injuries suffered last seasons, and he’s looking forward to making his defensive unit one of the best in the league again.
“Nothing would be more satisfying for me personally, than to be able to come here and help this organization, this head coach, this general manager, this owner, this team, the players that they have,” said Morris.
And the team GM, John Lynch, is excited to have him.
“He’s a bundle of energy, he’s curious, he’s insightful,” said Lynch. “We always talk about there’s guys who drain a room and then there’s guys who give life to a room, he gives life to a room.”
He not only brings life to a room, he does the same to defenses, and now he’s eager to remind everyone across the league why he’s one of the best defensive coordinators in the league.
