Falcons' New Defensive Coordinator Will Call Plays, Not Raheem Morris

Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will handle play-calling duties, though the process of building a scheme will include lots of collaboration.

Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator and former New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich will call plays in 2025. / Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Falcons' defense will be in new hands in 2025 -- but with the help of a few returning faces.

Jeff Ulbrich, who met with reporters Monday for the first time since being hired as the Falcons' defensive coordinator Jan. 18, said he will call plays on gamedays this fall.

But Atlanta's new-look defense will be a "collaboration at the highest level," Ulbrich said, singling out the impact of head coach Raheem Morris, assistant head coach/defense Jerry Gray and defensive pass game coordinator Mike Rutenberg.

"The list goes on and on," Ulbrich said. "We have an amazing defensive staff, guys that have been around great defenses, guys that understand ball at a high level, and it would be criminal of me not to take advantage of these guys."

Morris and Ulbrich called plays together for the final 11 games of the 2020 season.

Morris started the year as the team's defensive coordinator, but when head coach Dan Quinn was fired after an 0-5 start, Morris ascended to the interim head coach spot. Ulbrich, then Atlanta's linebacker coach, became interim defensive coordinator.

Ulbrich called the defense on first and second down, while Morris handled third downs. After the season, neither Ulbrich nor Morris were retained, but both became defensive coordinators -- Ulbrich with the New York Jets and Morris for the Los Angeles Rams.

When Morris returned to Atlanta as head coach in January 2024, he hired Jimmy Lake, with no professional play-calling experience, to be his defensive coordinator. The Falcons ranked in the bottom quarter of the league in numerous defensive categories at their Week 12 bye, and Morris became more involved in the unit down the stretch.

Lake retained play-calling duties, and Atlanta's defense turned around, but the Falcons fired Lake on Jan. 11.

The hiring of Ulbrich, between his past ties to Morris and extensive history calling plays, signals Morris wants to stay true to his initial plan in Atlanta: delegating the most important coordinator responsibilities strictly to his coordinators and their subsequent chain-of-command.

Still, Morris's voice will be prevalent in the defense's performance -- which is exactly how Ulbrich wants it.

"We're going to have some hard conversations, and that's another thing that's beautiful about this opportunity for myself -- the equity in the relationship I have with Raheem is such that we can have drag out," Ulbrich said. "Like if you were an outsider looking in, you'd be like, 'Damn, they hate each other.'

"But we're capable of having those really, really hard conversations, but understanding that we're trying to create something special, and when we walk out that door, we walk out that door together."

Ulbrich said Morris has an "amazing brain" and "beautiful mind." He added Gray, who's now working with his third defensive coordinator in as many years with the Falcons and has eight years of defensive play-calling experience, is "an amazing defensive coach" and has been for a long time.

Similarly, Ulbrich worked closely with Rutenberg in New York -- Rutenberg was the team's linebackers coach the past four years.

The Falcons want to create something unique defensively. They'll run multiple schemes and want to present new looks for opposing offenses.

Ulbrich won't be alone in devising the plan to accomplish that goal.

"I'm going to lean on these guys for us to really put our brains together and challenge everything," Ulbrich said. "A lot of times, any walk of life, it's just, ‘That's the way we've done things. That's the way it's always been done.’ That's not good enough."

In essence? On gamedays, calls will be in Ulbrich's hands. But the makings of the Falcons' defense will be far from a one-man crew, instead reflecting the values and ideas of several parties in a collaborative effort to build for brighter days.

And Ulbrich thinks the Falcons will bear the fruit of their work next fall.

"We're going to grind," Ulbrich said. "It's going to be fun. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be hard. It's going to be long hours, but it's going to be absolutely worth it at the end of the day."