FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons coach Raheem Morris declared that he would evaluate the entire operation, including players and coaches, after his team’s 8-9 final record in his first season as head coach.
“We’ve got to evaluate all of our coaches,” Morris said at his end-of-season news conference Jan. 6. “We’ve got to evaluate all of our players. We’ve got to evaluate everything that we do from a whole program standpoint.”
In the early stages of that evaluation, he elected to terminate defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake and defensive line coach Jay Rodgers on Saturday. Lake had worked with Morris with Tampa Bay and the Los Angeles Rams. Rodgers once was considered the top defensive line coach in the NFL.
There will be several high-profile candidates to replace Lake, who was calling defensive plays in the NFL for the first time. Morris will have the option to hire a more experienced defensive coordinator in order to whip the defense into shape or he will stay with someone he’s more familiar with.
The Falcons can use the Philadelphia Eagles’ approach.
The Eagles fired defensive coordinator Sean Desai after only one season. Senior assistants Matt Patricia took over the play-calling late in the 2023 season. He also was released.
The Eagles went to veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and showed marked improvement with essentially the same players this season.
Former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, who most recently was assistant head coach with the Raiders this season, is available.
Lewis, 66, was the Ravens’ defensive coordinator from 1996-2001. He was the architect of the record-setting 2000 defense that featured linebacker Ray Lewis. He was assistant head coach in Washington on Steve Spurrier’s staff in 2002. He was the Bengals’ head coach from 2003-18.
Lewis was Associated Press coach of the year in 2009.
If the Falcons used the buddy system, where coaches tend to hire coaches they are familiar with and have worked with before, former Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will be the leading candidate.
After Morris was not hired as the Falcons’ head coach after he served as the interim head coach for most of the 2020 season, Ulbrich, who was on the Falcons staff that season, was named the defensive coordinator of the New York Jets. He served as their interim head coach after Robert Saleh was fired this season.
Ulbrich, who played in NFL for the 49ers from 2000-09, was with the Falcons from 2015-20. He was the linebackers coach mostly and served as the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach in his final season.
He helped to call the defense for part of 2019 and in 2020.
The Jets’ problems over the past four seasons mostly were on the offense, as they moved on from quarterback Sam Darnold and cycled through Zach Wilson and Aaron Rodgers.
Ulbrich’s first defense finished 32nd in the NFL in points and yards allowed in 2021. The Jets jumped to fourth in yards and points in 2022. They finished 12th in points and third in yards in 2023 and ranked 20th in points and third in yards this season.
The Jets used a 4-3 alignment and featured a stout front anchored by former Alabama standout Quinnen Williams and a secondary that had cornerback Sauce Gardner. The Jets had strong linebacker play this season from Jamien Sherwood, who lead the Jets with 158 tackles, and Quincy Williams, who ranked second with 116 tackles.
Another potential candidate is former Cardinals coach Steve Wilks, who was a visitor to the Falcons’ training camp in 2024. Wilks, who was the head coach at Savannah State in 1999, has been a longtime NFL coordinator.
Wilks was the head coach for the Cardinals in 2018 and was the 49ers’ defensive coordinator in 2023.
Leslie Frazier, 65, was the Vikings’ head coach from 2011-13. He’s be a defensive coordinator with the Bengals (2003-04), Vikings (2007-10), Bucs (2014-15) and Buffalo (2017-22). He was Seattle’s assistant head coach this season.
Also, former Saints coach Dennis Allen is a hot defensive coordinator candidate. He’s set to interview with the Colts, according to ESPN.
Allen, who was born in Atlanta, is the son of former Falcons linebacker Grady Allen (1968-72). He started his NFL coaching career with the Falcons as a defensive quality-control assistant for Dan Reeves in 2002.
Allen, who was the Raiders head coach from 2012-14, was with the Saints from 2006-10 and returned from 2015-21 as the defensive coordinator.
He posted a 18-25 record with Saints from 2022-24. He was fired after a 2-7 start this season, which included a 26-24 loss to the Falcons on Sept. 29.
Former Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is another accomplished coach looking for work after he was fired Jan. 6 after six seasons. He helped the Bengals make back-to-back AFC title-game appearances in 2021 and 2022 while allowing 18.8 points per game in seven postseason matchups. He was lauded for being flexible and making halftime adjustments.
Anarumo would be reunited with Falcons safety Jessie Bates III, who started his career with the Bengals.
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