The San Francisco 49ers made a major splash this offseason, landing Raheem Morris as their next defensive coordinator after losing Robert Saleh to the Tennessee Titans.
Morris, who had previously been the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons before being fired, was considered one of the top defensive coordinator candidates on the market. He reunited with head coach Kyle Shanahan, whom he coached with at several previous stops.
One major question with the Morris hire was how the 49ers defense would look
following the change. Morris has used different fronts with his Falcons defenses, but Shanahan has generally looked for his defensive coordinators to run four-man fronts with the Wide 9 over the years.
We did see Morris run a good amount of five-man fronts with the Falcons. What’s been the value of that, and will Morris look to use them more frequently with the 49ers?
“These guys are getting, they’re harder to defend. Just the coordinators in this league, let’s not kid ourselves, people want to see offense,” Morris said last week. “The rules have changed in different ways for you to do different things. So, you’ve got to have some multiplicity in your front. You’ve got to have multiplicity in the back end. You’ve got to be able to do different things. You’d like to be able to do those things when you decide to do those things and use them as terms where you can dictate, so to speak.
“But, we (the 49ers) have been a four-down rush team, and we’ve done a nice job with it. I know we’ve dibbled and dabbled a little bit last year, even with Robert Saleh, who I have so much respect for and what he was able to do and how he did it. But I was able to accumulate and acquire a bunch of different ideas and thoughts along my stops with the different people that I work with. Whether it’s been Jim Haslett in Washington, where they were strictly three-four base Pittsburgh team, or really being able to do some of the different things that we did last year, being able to mix it up, being able to play some four-down stuff, being able to play a bunch of five-down stuff. So, I think you’ve got to be able to move around and kind of move those chess pieces to be able to help you go out there and really do your best to stop these really explosive offenses.”
As for defensive changes, Morris didn’t commit to any scheme changes that resembled what he ran in Atlanta, but noted that he will look to do whatever best fits his players.
“We definitely want to do what’s best for our players. You’re always going to do what they do really well,” Morris continued. “Fred Warner is Fred Warner for a reason. I’m going to try to utilize those guys to the best of their ability to do some of their different things and be able to have some additions, to be able to go out there and ultimately to go try to win a championship. Whatever’s required, whatever’s needed to go do those things.
“Those are the expectations and those are the things that we want to get done. So, to say it’s going to be more resemblant to me [with the Falcons] or more resemblant to them, it’s going to be what’s best for us in order to go win football games. And I think that’s the best way to look at it, ultimately, whatever it takes to go win football games, whatever it takes to go out there and get it done for us.”
Morris will have a different group to work with this season, as the 49ers will have Mykel Williams and Nick Bosa back from injury, Osa Odighizuwa in the fold at defensive tackle, and rookies Romello Height and Gracen Halton on the defensive line.
