Raheem Morris is the gift that keeps on giving. If you thought the Atlanta Falcons would be done with him when they fired him, you would be dead wrong. He's roughly the coaching equivalent of that pest you thought you got rid of but keeps coming back and is still haunting the Falcons after he was fired.
Now that he's the defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers, Morris is making it his mission to terrorize his old team. After his request to speak with Justin Hood was blocked, he poached assistant head coach Jerry Gray to coach defensive backs in the Bay Area, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Now that he already brought Gray with him to San Francisco, he could look to bring some players along with them. And of all of the players on Atlanta's defense who are set to be free agents, between Gray and Morris, the connections to Dee Alford are becoming impossible for Falcons fans to ignore.
Dee Alford is becoming a near lock to sign with the 49ers in free agency
Alford was already floated as someone who could follow the 49-year-old to the West Coast, but now that one of the most respected defensive coaches the Dirty Birds have will be coaching their DBs, it makes the appeal of joining the 49ers much clearer after a bounce-back season in a contract year.
In 2025, the 28-year-old logged career-highs in interceptions (3) and passes defensed (13), which also marked a team-high. While Mike Hughes struggled opposite A.J. Terrell and Billy Bowman Jr. tore his Achilles midseason, Alford shined, and can very well cash in on his successes come free agency.
Gray spent the last three seasons primarily working with the defense in Atlanta, but the 63-year-old DB coach is regarded as one of the best secondary coaches in the NFL. He's been with Alford in Atlanta in all three seasons of his career, and that level of familiarity has to be intriguing to No. 20.
The former first-round CB used his multiple decades of coaching experience to get the most out of Alford, even when fans were calling for his job before the season. The locker room always reponded to Gray's leadership, including Alford, and it was a bummer to hear that Kevin Stefanski didn't plan on keeping him.
The Falcons would like to bring Alford back, but his versatility will be a tough sell for a DB room that was among the least productive in 2025. And if he respects Morris and Gray as much as we think, he is already booking the next flight to San Francisco to join them in the NFC West.