Raheem Morris emphasizes desire to surround himself with quarterbacks

Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris shed some more light on the process of adding quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr. to the roster. While speaking to reporters last week, Morris talked about the desire to surround himself with quarterbacks and people who know the position heading into the 2024 season.

“Coming to the process and going through it all, the most important position arguably in sports is the quarterback position,” Morris said. “I am not a quarterback guy and I want to surround myself with quarterback people. I’ve always kind of been that way. I’ve always been on that nosy spectrum of it all.

“…All of the guys that are on our staff that have either playing experience at quarterback, coaching experience at quarterback, been with different guys, what it looks like because you knew that the process was going to possibly look like. You’re in the process of going to get a big-time free agent in Kirk Cousins knowing exactly what you want as far as the processor, the person that you want to get, the guy in the room, the person that can lead your team, the person that can go behind that thing and win.”

Morris continued: “You want to go get that guy, and you also knew you’re looking for your long-term plan like a Michael Penix and you get all those different opinions in those rooms. We called it the quarterback contingent just throughout the whole process, whether we’re talking about free agency, whether we’re talking about the draft, and I remember we talked about this very early in the process of all the ways you can go about and acquiring talent on your football team.

Raheem Morris gives praise to Matt Ryan

“We use all those access and resources that we have within the building that we’re able to bring in or that was already here that we’re able to use in order to get those things done. I got so much respect for Matt Ryan, so to speak. He’s another guy that you want to look at and talk to and be able to listen to his opinion when it comes to quarterback play.”

Morris wants better quarterback play from the Falcons in 2024 as inconsistent play from Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder led to the Falcons finishing 7-10 in 2022 and 2023 (also finished 7-10 in 2021 with Ryan at QB). Cousins joins the team after spending six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. He signed a four-year $180 million contract with the Falcons in March, but the Falcons then drafted Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick in April. This likely means that Cousins will be with the team for two (possibly three) years before Penix takes over.