Arthur Blank Comments on Decision to Fire Raheem Morris, Terry Fontenot

ATLANTA – The Atlanta Falcons have officially confirmed the reports that head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot have been fired. Morris finished his two seasons with a 16-18 record, while Fontenot will end at 37-48 after five years without a single trip to the playoffs.

The team finished 2025 with an 8-9 record, locking in an eighth straight season outside of the postseason and a sub-.500 regular-season record. In an official statement from the Falcons, Arthur Blank had this to say about his decision to part ways with both his head coach and general manager on Sunday night.

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“I have great personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership in these roles moving forward,” said Blank. “The decision to move away from people who represent the organization so well and have a shared commitment to the values that are important to the organization is not an easy one, but the results on the field have not met our expectations or those of our fans and leadership. I wish Raheem and Terry the absolute best in their future pursuits.”

The search for the next generation of leadership of the Falcons will begin right away, the team said in the release. They confirmed that ZRG Partners will assist with the head coach search, and Sportsology Group will assist with the general manager role search.

They have no timeline for the completion of either search, but they will occur concurrently.

After winning four games in a row to end the 2025 season, there was growing speculation that Blank would opt to retain either or both of Fontenot and Morris.

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The last time the Falcons won four games in a row came in 2019, in very similar circumstances. Then-head coach Dan Quinn finished the season on the stretch, despite having been eliminated from the playoffs. The Falcons made several aggressive moves that offseason to compete right away, but owner Arthur Blank decided to clean house after the team started 0-5 that season.

On Sunday, Blank made it clear that he would not risk any similar results, and they will pursue new leadership for the 2026 season and beyond.