The Atlanta Falcons defense is on the rise under Morris

In 2019, the Atlanta Falcons defense was something out of a horror movie under the supervision of head coach Dan Quinn.

Halfway through the 2019 season, the Atlanta Falcons ranked near the bottom or dead last in categories like takeaways, sacks, passes defended, opponent drive scoring efficiency, and opponent red zone efficiency.

During the bye week, Dan Quinn finally got out of his own way and made Raheem Morris the defensive coordinator and the results were outstanding. In those respective categories listed earlier, under Morris, the Falcons defense went from one of the worst in the league to look like an elite defense ranking in the top ten.

On the defense, Morris has guys like Joe Whitt Jr., who was previously coaching on the Browns defense, but had his most success while coaching on the Packers defense between 2008 and 2018.

His coaching helped develop some on the younger cornerbacks on the Packers into Pro Bowler and also coached Rod Woodson, who was already a Hall of Famer at that time, but Whitt Jr’s coaching allowed Woodson to be more productive in his later years. His coaching could develop Kendall Sheffield and Isaiah Oliver and help them build on a pretty solid season for both.

New defensive ends coach Tosh Lupoi coached under Alabama head coach Nick Saban between 2014 and 2018 in different capacities, with most recently being the defensive coordinator for the Roll Tide. Last season, he coached with Whitt on the Browns defense assisting with the development of elite pass rusher Myles Garrett. Morris and the Falcons are hoping he could do the same with Takk McKinley.

Last season was a rough one for the Atlanta Falcons, but what we did see at the end of the season should let people know the potential is there if you have the right people taking charge and Morris is the right person.  The Falcons will look to build on that and there’s no reason why they can’t.