Falcons Staff Changes Built Succession Plan for OC Zac Robinson

Three years removed from their last time working together, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank racked his brain for areas of improvement with head coach Raheem Morris.

It was February 2024, and Blank's Falcons had hired Morris two weeks prior. As Blank pondered an answer, he settled on Morris's newfound appreciation for the importance of building a deep coaching staff capable of promoting from within if a coordinator or position coach is poached.

"Like in any business, in this case the business of the NFL: how do you anticipate that?" Blank said at the time. "How do you build a coaching staff when you go through that, your best coaches are picked off and go elsewhere in the NFL, which is what should happen because they have opportunities? How do you maintain the consistency of play on the field?

"I think he brought back a plan which showed me his thinking had really changed in that regard and he had learned a lot in that regard."

Now, Morris is proving Blank right.

The Falcons made a pair of publicly discussed but underemphasized promotions Feb. 13, elevating quarterbacks coach T.J. Yates to pass game coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach D.J. Williams to quarterbacks coach.

Morris implied that Atlanta made the move with plans of putting Yates in a position to be offensive coordinator Zac Robinson's successor should Robinson, a young, promising mind, find himself in head coach conversations next offseason.

"It allows me to get a chance to get T.J. Yates closer with Zac Robinson in order for us to be able to find out how we want to make sure our future remains consistent," Morris said Tuesday at the NFL combine. "No matter what happens with Zac or no matter what happens in this league and ever-changing offensive coordinators and how that goes."

Morris referenced the Falcons' developmental plan for coaches, and he feels Robinson did well in starting Atlanta's new era on offense. The 38-year-old Robinson helped establish how the Falcons want to handle their business, Morris said.

Atlanta finished sixth in total offense, averaging 369.8 yards per game, and ranked inside the top 10 in both passing and rushing yards. The Falcons struggled with turnovers, ranking 24th in the league, and battled inconsistency in the red zone. They had the NFL's 13th-best scoring offense, totaling 22.9 points per contest.

Robinson, who spent four seasons as a reserve NFL quarterback on four different teams and worked as an assistant under Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay for five years, has the makings of a future head coach candidate.

Toss in the fact that Atlanta, with quarterback Michael Penix Jr., running back Bijan Robinson and receivers Drake London and Darnell Mooney, expects to field a potent offense, and Robinson's external allure only figures to grow.

Morris recognized that, and he wanted to be proactive. He also wanted to reward Williams, who worked closely with Penix for the first 15 weeks of the 2024 season while Yates largely handled game preparation with starting quarterback Kirk Cousins.

"It allowed us to promote D.J., to give him the credit that he had in developing our young quarterback that we were able to do last year," Morris said. "And really be able to reward those guys and put those guys in position to do even more, put those guys in position and make us even better."

The Falcons wanted to split responsibilities in 2024, so they had Yates create the focus around Cousins and left Williams to develop Penix. When Penix became the starter in Week 16, the responsibilities shifted to where Penix worked more with Yates.

Now, Penix will again be reunited with Williams. Morris said he's "fired up" about how the moves were made and the conversations he and his staff had before they reached their decision.

Morris has long been fond of Williams, who worked with coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees, among others, as a member of the New Orleans Saints' coaching staff from 2019-23.

But equally as important to the on-field implications behind the promotions is the off-field lesson they prove. Morris, after an up-and-down first season back in Atlanta, delivered on the values he sold Blank during the head coach hiring process last offseason.

Now, the Falcons need wins to follow. If they do, Robinson could be poached -- but Atlanta is ready.

"Really like where we're going, really like our development plan with our young crew, especially with our quarterback room," Morris said. "We're really fired up about where we're going with those guys. We got a lot of young talent on both sides, whether it be the player or the coaching standpoint.

"Feel good about this."