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Raheem Morris gets rousing endorsement from Rams GM Les Snead for NFL head coaching job

Morris has been the Rams' defensive coordinator for the past three seasons

sean leahy
Contributing writer
·3 min read
27

As the NFL offseason continues for some teams and there are coaching positions to be filled, Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris is a name out there as a viable candidate.

According to reports, Morris, who was head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009-11 and served as Atlanta Falcons interim head coach in 2020, has interviewed for several jobs with more interviews in the coming days.

It seems like a strong possibility that Morris will be in a new coaching role next season and not with the Rams, which is why general manager Les Snead felt the need to serve as Morris' hype man at his end-of-season media availability Friday.

Snead met with the media for nearly an hour and used the first few minutes of his session to sell Morris' qualities on why he would be a great NFL head coach.

"No. 1, I think we all know, great human being," Snead said. "The guy is coded to respect everyone, to build a relationship with everyone no matter where you're at in the organization. What's awesome is, as he does that, you just see the respect flow back in his direction. He's coded for that. It's a superpower that I think would help any organization.

"He's a highly intelligent human being who happened to choose football, and probably could have done a lot of things in life, but chose the path of football."

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"There's not many coaches on the planet who's been in both of those rooms on those two sides of the ball. He's gonna give any organization an edge and just how collaborative he is, it's going to be an edge that most teams aren't going to be able to compete with."

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"I know this, he'll be able to hire an unbelievable staff. Every coach, who's any good, who's qualified, they're going to want to work for Raheem, and I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of tampering charges because just about every player in the NFL is going to text him and want to come play for him. I'll let the NFL handle that."

Morris has been the Rams' defensive coordinator since 2021, helping them win Super Bowl LVI in his first season. After numerous departures to the roster last year, he played a role in the Rams becoming a surprise team during the 2023 season and getting back to the playoffs.

Judging by the various voices within the Rams organization who have talked up Morris' abilities, they certainly wouldn't want to lose him from the staff, but they realize it's inevitable that the work and success he's had will result in a head coaching job elsewhere.

"But what I remember is as soon as we were able to get him on board, there was an immediate excitement from everybody that he touched in this building, whether it be players, coaches [or] staff," said Rams head coach Sean McVay, who's been talking up Morris for a head coaching job for years. "And he's got that magnetism about him where he is just saying something's different about this guy and he's really special."

Five teams — the Los Angeles Chargers, Washington Commanders, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, and Seattle Seahawks — have reportedly interviewed or plan to speak with Morris about their open positions. According to the Rooney Rule, should Morris be hired by another team, the Rams would receive a third-round compensatory pick for two years.