Just ahead of his first season as the Atlanta Falcons head coach, Raheem Morris made a bold move by drafting Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
That decision could end up determining his employment status. Now entering Year 2, Morris is placing the fate of the entire organization in Penix’s arm, all the while having Kirk Cousins, who signed a four-year, $180 million contract last offseason, sit behind him on the bench.
That said, there may be little leeway for Morris after a disappointing first season at the helm. An 8-9 campaign and a seventh straight year of missing the playoffs, despite their bold quarterback plans, has created serious unease around Atlanta.
The result heading into the 2025 season has landed Morris on CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin’s ranking of the NFL’s worst head coaches. He was listed at No. 27 overall in the “unproven and underwhelming” Tier 3 category.
“For a team that was supposed to be a quarterback away going into 2024, the young Falcons have a lot of questions after Morris' situational calls contributed to another non-playoff season in Atlanta,” Benjamin wrote. “If Michael Penix Jr. delivers under center, the tides could turn.”
The Falcons began the 2024 season 6-3 and were leading the NFC South before the wheels fell off in Week 10. Cousins suffered elbow and shoulder injuries that mostly went unreported, hampering his play during a 2-6 finish.
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In the final three games, Penix took over and performed well enough that Morris named him the starter for 2025 — a decision the coach will now have to live with, for better or worse.
Morris is 29-47 as a head coach, with his previous stop coming in Tampa Bay from 2009 to 2011. He’s had just one winning season — a 10-6 campaign in 2010 with the Buccaneers.
Now he’s at the center of one of the NFL’s most fascinating quarterback situations: a second-year starter with just three career starts and a $27.5 million backup on the bench.
Still, Morris isn’t showing any signs of pressure. At minicamp, he called the situation “boring,” expressing confidence there won’t be disruptions from Cousins as Penix transitions into the role.
“Kirk is not in the business of disrupting Michael Penix,” Morris said, via Tori McElhaney. “Kirk has a great appreciation for the player Michael is. He has a great appreciation for the person that he is. I don’t have worries about those things. That only happens when you have a lack of communication, when there’s a void in the communication, and we just don’t have those things.”
In some ways, Morris is in an enviable position, with two quarterbacks who could start on most teams. But that also means if Penix struggles, fans will inevitably call for Cousins to return.