It was evident to pretty much everybody who watched the Atlanta Falcons last season that they needed much better play from their quarterbacks. And apparently, that includes new head coach Raheem Morris, and he was not shy about calling that out during a press conference this week.
Last season, the Atlanta Falcons bounced between Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke as their starting quarterbacks, but neither one of them was particularly successful or dominant for the team. In fact, the play from both quarterbacks seemed to hold the team back more than help it. And Raheem Morris acknowledged that.
During his press conference on Tuesday at the 2024 NFL Combine, Morris went as far as to suggest that if the team’s quarterbacks had performed better during the 2023 NFL season, the team might not have fired head coach Arthur Smith, meaning they might never have had to hire Morris.
“If we had better quarterback play I may not be standing here at the podium,” Morris said during his press conference according to Falcons beat writer Daniel Flick.
Raheem Morris on Atlanta being closer to contention than one might think:
“If we had better quarterback play I may not be standing here at the podium.” pic.twitter.com/dAZNTt7YTO
— Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) February 27, 2024
Obviously, this is a pretty brutal callout of his own quarterbacks, and the NFL world had a lot to say about it on social media as a result.
Just @ him next time. https://t.co/zwdYgNgt3m
— Thomas 'Mr Good-Tweets' Willoughby (@Willo290592) February 27, 2024
Weird, I thought it was because Bijan didn't get enough carries against Carolina.
Or because they tried a TE run on the goal line once.
or or
In all seriousness, I'm just glad there's now a logical consensus behind the Falcons' failures last season. https://t.co/7UwbcWInfO
— Joe Patrick (@japatrick200) February 27, 2024
They are flaming the QB play from last year lmao https://t.co/ZMQdBzIast
— King's Landing (@___theKing___) February 27, 2024
tempted to pin this for the next time some knucklehead tells me the Falcons should just “continue developing Ridder and let him compete” https://t.co/Ix5xvUPL7q
— jxke. 🧸 (@cantguardjake) February 27, 2024
I love that he said the quiet part out loud here. https://t.co/IP4DpMKNUM
— Kelly Price (@thekellyprice) February 27, 2024
i appreciate the hedge, but i think you can safely remove "may" and go with "would"
right or wrong, there's basically no way smith is already fired if the quarterback play was even reasonable https://t.co/mCs9ImFHpF
— Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) February 27, 2024
We’ll have to see what the Falcons do at the quarterback position this offseason, but it’s pretty clear they won’t be rolling with the same players as last year.
