Irvington HS alum and new Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris will be inducted into the Essex County Coaches Hall o Fame.
IRVINGTON, NJ — Irvington native Raheem Morris is getting another shot at being an NFL head coach.
Morris reportedly has been named as the Atlanta Falcons head coach.
The 1994 Irvington High School graduate, who got his first NFL head-coaching job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 15 years ago and was recently the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, returns to the Falcons after he was on their coaching staff from 2015 to 2020.
Morris, 47, has been to the Super Bowl three times with three different teams, winning it twice. He was the defensive quality control coach with the Bucs when they won the Super Bowl following the 2002 regular season. He was promoted to defensive assistant and later assistant defensive back coach with the team before moving on to become the defensive coordinator at Kansas State in 2006 for one season.
Morris returned to the Buccaneers and served as their DB coach from 2007 to 2008 before taking over as head coach for three seasons (2009-2011). In his second season in 2010, he finished second for the NFL Coach of the Year Award, behind New England’s Bill Belichik, after the Buccaneers went 10-6.
After being the DB coach for the Washington Redskins from 2012 to 2014, Morris joined the Falcons. He was the wide receivers coach/assistant head coach, under head coach Dan Quinn, when the Falcons played in the Super Bowl following the 2016 regular season, losing to legendary quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots.
After becoming the defensive coordinator in 2020, Morris was named the interim head coach for the final 11 games of that season after Quinn was fired, going 4-7.
Morris left the Falcons to become the defensive coordinator for the Rams. In his first season, the Rams won the Super Bowl following the 2021 regular season, beating the Cincinnati Bengals. Morris remained as the defensive coordinator with the Rams for the past two seasons before being named as the Falcons head coach.
After graduating from Irvington HS, Morris played football at Hofstra University, where he later became a DB coach from 2000-01 before moving on to the NFL with the Buccaneers.
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