5 teams who could land LA Rams DC Raheem Morris as their next head coach

The LA Rams may have the Wild Card Round of the 2024 NFL Playoffs, but head coaching opportunities continue to stack up. For Rams DC Raheem Morris, that is something that remains on his plate. He has been involved in interviewing for head coaching positions in the past, but has yet to be hired by a new team. This year, I don't see how he cannot be hired.

A full 25 percent of the NFL teams, eight of them, are seeking to hire a new head coach for the 2024 NFL season. Of the group, many appear to be positioned to benefit greatly from the coaching style of Raheem Morris. Those eight NFL teams are, in no particular order:

1. New England Patriots
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. Atlanta Falcons
4. Los Angeles Chargers
5. Washington Commanders
6. Carolina Panthers
7. Las Vegas Raiders
8. Tennessee Titans

At least three NFL teams have already formally requested to interview Raheem Morris for their head coaching opening.

The LA Rams may have bolstered Raheem Morris's candidacy as a potential NFL head coach by dismissing so many recognizable names from the Rams roster on defense, and compelling Morris to make do with a band of merry men from the 2022 and 2023 NFL Drafts, plus a seasoning of inexpensive veterans. for the 2023 NFL season.

While the move may have complicated Morris's efforts to field a competitive NFL defense, it certainly set the stage to reconsider his merits, particularly after benefitting from defenses loaded with elite players. It was not until rookies like nose tackle Kobie Turner and outside linebacker Byron Young arrived on the Rams roster that Morris's ability to communicate and galvanize young NFL players was placed on full display:

With the success of former San Francisco 49ers DC DeMeco Ryans as the head coach of the Houston Texans in 2023, Raheem Morris is quietly growing as a leading candidate to land a head coaching position this season. So which teams would be the likely landing site for Raheem Morris to become their next head coach? We believe that five NFL teams would make ideal landing sites for Morris as a new NFL head coach:

5 likely landing sites for Raheem Morris as HC

1. V: Los Angeles Chargers
2. IV: Atlanta Falcons
3. III: Carolina Panthers
4. II: Seattle Seahawks
5. I: Washington Commanders

V: Los Angeles Chargers

While the Los Angeles Chargers may not strike many as a perfect landing spot, keep in mind that many of the same factors that made former Rams DC Brandon Staley as an ideal HC candidate after the 2020 NFL season are present in Raheem Morris. But Morris is not some wunderkind rising NFL star, as he has NFL head coaching experience in the past.

The Chargers continue to boast a quality young quarterback in Justin Herbert, and with him comes an established NFL offense. The Chargers need to restore their defense to high quality, and that is something that requires a defensive minded head coach. Better still, no other candidate can point to the success of taking over after Brandon Staley.

While some Rams fans have been dragged along kicking and screaming over Raheem Morris three seasons as the Rams defensive coordinator, keep in mind that he was not give carte blanche to mold the defense into his vision immediately. In 2021, Morris was compelled to retain many of Brandon Staley's defensive strategies, as well as many of the players who flourished in Staley's defense.

But many of those players did not work out, particularly edge rushers and defensive backs. By the midpoint of the 2022 NFL season, many of the rotational and backup players were gone from the Rams roster. But Morris did bolster the Rams run defense, as well as improve the Rams performance at inside linebacker.

The Chargers are a young team that needs a communicator, a coaching catalyst, to take the next step as a perennial NFL postseason competitor. I believe that Raheem Morris can fill that need. But other teams have need of his talents as well:

IV: Atlanta Falcons

If you want to single out a team that has obvious ties to Raheem Morris in their head coach search, you have to place the Atlanta Falcons on that list. It was at the conclusion of his interim head coaching role with the Falcons that the LA Rams found Raheem Morris and offered him the opportunity to become the new Defensive Coordinator for the LA Rams.

Morris had ties to the Falcons then, and still has ties with the Falcons today.

It doesn't take an expert or NFL Insider to connect the dots. The Atlanta Falcons have been in the shadow of the New Orleans Saints and QB Drew Brees, followed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and quarterback Tom Brady. 2023 felt like a golden opportunity for the Falcons to rise to the top of the NFC South, but a 7-10 record, and losing eight of the final 12 games of the season, just didn't get it done.

The Falcons have a young roster, and a full complement of draft picks that fall as the eighth pick in each round. While the Falcons went with young QB Desmond Ridder in 2023, they have a Top-10 draft pick in the 2024 NFL Draft that could land them a rookie franchise quarterback if the board falls the right way for them. Of course, the quarterback position is quite deep in 2024, and the Falcons could land a future starter as late as Round 3.

The Falcons are in a solid spot. With a record of 7-10, the Falcons are not far from competing in post-season play. But to forge a team that can clear that hurdle requires a new head coach who can reach the young players on that Falcons roster.

Who better than Raheem Morris?

Sometimes the road back is blocked because the same authority that hires a person are the ones responsible to turning away and creating that void in the past. Will the Falcons be strong enough to give Raheem Morris a new opportunity, having just denied him an opportunity to do so in 2021? That's a great question that I simply do not have an answer to.

III: Carolina Panthers

If you think about the Carolina Panthers, you find a young team that desperately needs a head coach to arrive who can communicate with the many young players and forge them into a cohesive team that sees and buys into the plan. Raheem Morris could be that guy.

The Carolina Panthers are in a bit of a mess. They finished the 2023 NFL season with the worst record in the league, just 2-15. But the Panthers do not benefit from possessing the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, a pick that was recklessly traded away to the Chicago Bears for the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. That pick cost the Panthers first and second round picks in 2023, a first round pick in 2024, a second round pick in 2025, and WR D.J. Moore.

That pick was used to select rookie QB Bryce Young as the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

On the surface, the Panthers may appear to need an offensive minded coach who can develop Bryce Young's quarterbacking skills to an optimal level, keep in mind that the Houston Texans drafted QB C.J. Stroud with the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and he had an excellent season.

The Panthers may simply need a new head coach who can reach younger players, with just so happens to be Raheem Morris's forte.

I think that the Panthers are uniquely positioned to benefit from Raheem Morris as their head coach. During his time with the Rams, he has had to 'make do,' on multiple occasions in which the Rams simply did not possess enough picks or salary cap space to address all of the team's roster needs. That would certainly come in handy for the Panthers, who hold a young but very talented roster.

II: Seattle Seahawks

As painful as it is to say this, the Seattle Seahawks are an NFC Western Division rival that has admired the style of the LA Rams, ever since the Rams hired Sean McVay to be the head coach in 2017. And the Seahawks have never hesitated to poach quality coaches from the Rams coaching staff in the past, so this is an undeniable landing site for Raheem Morris as a new head coach.

How does any NFL team truly replace a long-time head coach who has the quality of legendary? In a phrase? You don't. The Seattle Seahawks had found many years and great success with head coach Pete Carroll. Now that Carroll will no longer be at the helm, the Seahawks must forge a new chapter.

Of course, if the Seahawks valued the positive qualities of Pete Carroll, then they will find a lot to love about Raheem Morris. Morris checks all of the boxes for the Seahawks. He is a former head coach, is beloved by players, is a great motivator and communicator, and understands the NFC Western Division as well as if not better than any other head coach candidate who may be up for consideration.

As much as LA Rams fans have derided Morris as the Rams DC, nobody who thinks the matter through fully and objective would want Morris to take over as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Morris is a savvy veteran who not only knows football through and through, but he knows the NFC West incredibly well, and the LA Rams best of all.

Hiring Rams DC Raheem Morris has all of the trapping of a Seahawks move, which is why they appear so high on this list. But there is one team that is even a more logical landing site, and we will discuss why on the very next slide.

I: Washington Commanders

The Washington Commanders not only need a new head coach, but the team needs a complete and drastic culture change. Former HC Ron Rivera was superb at his job in navigating the land mine of off-field issues that the Washington Commanders had to face. Now, the team needs a head coach who not only can re-focus the team on football exclusively but can win over the locker room quickly.

If you want to discuss a team that is ripe with all of the raw assets primed and ready to go for a new head coach, the Washington Commanders have to be one of the top teams. The Commanders are projected to hold nine draft picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, including the second overall pick.

The Washington Commanders project to start off the 2024 NFL season with nearly $90 million of available salary cap space, while holding 44 players under contract. While the Commanders offense was the 24th-ranked offense in the NFL, the defense was ranked dead last, 32nd overall.

Did we mention that Raheem Morris is a defensive minded coach?

The Washington Commanders have to prioritize building the right type of culture on the team that creates a positive and strong backdrop to develop young players. That almost automatically places Raheem Morris as one of the strongest HC candidates in the field.

The Commanders are not going to compete in 2024 for a berth in the NFL Playoffs. But with the right guy at the helm, like Raheem Morris, they could be strong contenders in 2024. And Morris has enough resiliency to flourish in a competitive NFC Eastern Division.

What do you think? Did we miss any teams ideally suited to hire Raheem Morris as their next head coach? Let us know in the comments section of our Facebook page. Thanks for reading!