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Rams DC Raheem Morris: “We are here to win a championship.”

Little change schematically expected in L.A.'s No.1-ranked defense

All coaches set high expectations for themselves. It’s part of their DNA.

Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris isn’t any different. Morris is back partnering with someone he’s very familiar with, having worked with close friend Rams head coach Sean McVay when the two were both young assistants learning the game under then head coach Jon Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“He had all answers since 2008,” joked Morris. “He’s been a young man that you kind of knew, as soon as you met him, he lit up a room. He’s got a commanding presence.”

The two, energetic coaches are teamed up together again in Los Angeles, with Morris taking over last year’s No. 1-ranked defense led by the departed Brandon Staley -- now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Morris is tasked with somehow making an already great defense even better, as McVay tries to lead the Rams back to a Super Bowl -- and this time win it.

“At the end of the day, ultimately nobody’s really going to be happy with being the number one defense,” Morris said. “We are here to win a championship. I wasn’t brought here to try to duplicate what they did last year. We were brought here to win and we’re brought here to win a championship. I want to get that done for Sean. I want to get that done for this community.”

Morris, 44, said the Rams will remain a 3-4 base front, as they were under Staley and before him Wade Phillips.

“When you go into your sub packages, which the league has kind of developed into you see a lot more four-down fronts,” Morris said. “Whether you’re talking about odd or even, whether you’re talking about bringing different people in to do some different things, you’re going to do all those things, you’re going to have all those different types of packages.

“Obviously, you’ll talk about who you are and what you are. We’re going to look like a three-four base team, something that we tried to look like in Atlanta. But all those packages within the install, you want to put those things in on a timely basis. Sean’s going to do a great job of setting them up of how they go in, how we install a lot of things, how we get our stuff taught to our players and what’s the best way to do those things to be detailed as possible, and all those things that we want to do.”

A head coach for three seasons with the Bucs, Morris also served as the interim head coach for the Atlanta Falcons last season. He interviewed for head coaching positions with the Falcons and the Jacksonville Jaguars during the offseason. Ultimately, Morris did not get either job and found himself on the West Coast for the first time working as a coach.

He’s still adjusting to the time change. A morning person, Morris said he’s waking up at 2:30 a.m. and waiting for Starbucks to open up.

“These days on the West Coast are pretty long,” Morris said. “I’ve got to get acclimated to waking up and calling the people from the East Coast that you need to talk to. I’ve been yelled at numerous amounts of time by my Mom for not being able to talk to her within a timely fashion because by the time you’re ready to call them, they were asleep.”

Morris points to NFL defensive gurus like Monte Kiffin, Tony Dungy and Vic Fangio as coaching influences cutting his teeth in the NFL.

“First thing is the greatest coaches in this league are the best thieves,” Morris said. “I've been able to steal from these guys from afar for a long time.”

He will try not to drastically change what Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald accomplished in Staley’s defense last season, choosing to accentuate the many things they already do well in that system.

Morris put it simply: “You don’t mess them up.” 

The charismatic new defensive coordinator will lean on his excellent skills as a communicator to bring players and coaches together. Morris said he’s filled vacancies on his defensive coaching staff, some of them by promoting within, but will let the organization make those announcements.

He does not feel pressure in taking over for Staley and his No. 1-ranked defense last season.

“Our whole business kind of deals with pressure,” Morris said. “I don’t think it’s pressure, I think it’s more of an opportunity. Anytime you get a chance to join greatness, to be a part of a bunch of winning, like you guys have been able to do around here in the past -- to be able to add onto that, to join a bunch of really good coaches and really good players, you’re really just fired up more than pressure.

“It’s an opportunity to be a part of greatness and it’s certainly something that I’m going to relish.”