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Mark Raimondi
atlanta falcons Coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot were fired Sunday night after two consecutive disappointing seasons.
His exit came hours after Atlanta finished their campaign 8-9. 19-17 home win Above New Orleans Saints,
Fontenot was with the Falcons through 2021. Morris was hired in 2024.
“I have deep personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership to step into these roles,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a statement. “The decision to walk away from people who represented the organization so well and have a shared commitment to the values important to the organization is not an easy one, but the results on the field have not met our or our fans’ and leadership’s expectations. I wish Raheem and Terry all the best for their futures.”
The team said that the search for both the roles will begin immediately.
The Falcons finished the season by winning four consecutive games. After Sunday’s win, several players including drake london, Jesse Bates III And bijan robinson, hoped that morris Will be back for the third season as well as Fontenot returns.
“I want the trail back with all my heart,” London said.
But Atlanta did not have a winning record even once during Fontenot’s five-year tenure, and the Falcons were 16–18 in the two campaigns under Morris. Overall, the Falcons have not reached the playoffs since 2017, the second-longest drought in the NFL. Atlanta has not had a winning record for eight seasons.
Fontenot, 45, comes to the Falcons after 17 seasons with the Saints, most recently as New Orleans’ assistant general manager and vice president of pro personnel. This was Fontenot’s first job as general manager.
He arrived in Atlanta at the same time as Arthur Smith was hired as coach and helped the organization get out of the salary cap. But Smith’s Falcons went 7–10 in each of his three seasons, and Smith was fired after the 2023 season, replaced by Morris.
Atlanta went 8-9 in 2024 despite a 6-3 start.
Not being able to find the right quarterback after the franchise signal-caller matt ryan The left wing of Atlanta was Fontenot’s final ruin. The Falcons have five QBs – marcus mariota, desmond ridder, taylor heinicke, cancer cousin And Michael Penix Jr. –Since Ryan was traded in 2021, no one else has completely panned out.
During the 2024 offseason, the Falcons signed Cousins, coming off a torn Achilles tendon, to a four-year contract with at least $100 million guaranteed. Six weeks later, they drafted Penix with the No. 8 pick.
The plan was to make Cousins the current quarterback before eventually transferring to Penix. Cousins had a good start to 2024, helping the Falcons to a 6-3 record. But he struggled during a four-game losing streak and was benched for the Penix in Week 16 of that season.
Although he has shown flashes of promise, Penix was inconsistent in 12 starts before going down with a left ACL tear in Week 11 this season. Penix is likely to be out for nine to 12 months.
Morris, 49, was hired as Atlanta’s coach in January 2024 after a successful three-year stint as defensive coordinator. Los Angeles Rams Which also included a Super Bowl victory. (Morris was previously on the Falcons’ staff since 2015; he was named defensive coordinator under Dan Quinn in 2020 and became the team’s interim head coach later that season when Quinn was fired.)
Morris’s only previous experience as a head coach was with tampa bay buccaneers From 2009 to 2011. He compiled a record of 17–31 with the Bucs.
