If you ever wanted to know how horrible Raheem Morris was as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Elijah Wilkinson just gave you some answers. After leaving Atlanta to sign with the Arizona Cardinals late last week, the veteran tackle joined the Cardinals by burning a lot of bridges in the A.
In a now-deleted social media post, Wilkinson referred to the Falcons as a "clown show", which feels like more of a shot at Morris than the franchise itself. The 31-year-old proceeded to double down on his comments in private Instagram DMs, and the more you read, the more pathetic his words become.
His words are incredibly rich for a guy who genuinely isn't good, but that doesn't change the reality here: whether he said this or not, Morris had to go. The 49-year-old led the Dirty Birds to serviceable 8-9 records in both of his two seasons at the helm, but his locker room management was horrible.
The players were believed to love him, but Wilkinson is setting out to debunk that belief. They seemed willing to play for him after they were eliminated from playoff contention, and many of them publicly said they didn't want him fired. But apparently, there was more discord going down then we believed.
Raheem Morris' firing is the best decision the Falcons have made in quite some time
The only thing worse than his locker room management was his in-game management, as the sheer number of one-score games the Falcons lost was historically pathetic. He mismanaged the QB room, the WR room, and honestly, the only good decision he made in Atlanta was hiring Jeff Ulbrich as DC.
The wildest part about this was that Morris was still able to land a job as the defensive coordinator of the San Francisco, which is only because he's buddies with Kyle Shanahan. He was ready to take the year off and accept a job in sports media had Shanahan not called after Robert Saleh took a HC job.
Arthur Blank isn't one known for making difficult choices, but even he knew that Morris (and by proxy Terry Fontenot had to go). The previous regime was so bad he was willing to alter their entire front office structure to fix their issues, and the Falcons are better off because of it.
The Falcons are in a much better spot with Kevin Stefanski and Ian Cunningham at the helm, and it hasn't taken very long into this ofseason for fans to buy into their vision. It's noteworthy that Wilkinson said this after they were hired, but he wouldn't be this angry at a coach he never played for.
Even so, things can't get worse than they were under Morris, even if a bad third-string tackle who only played due to injuries just unearthed just how bad things were. Wilkinson willingly decided to join an even more incompetent organization, but this is good news for Stefanski, since the bar is practically underground in 2026.