Rams Would Receive Draft Compensation if Raheem Morris Gets Coaching Job
Raheem Morris has done a tremendous job coordinating a young defense for the Los Angeles Rams this season, so coach Sean McVay and company certainly hope he's back for 2024.
But if not, there will be a silver lining for the Rams.
USA Today
If any team hires Morris as their coach this offseason, the Rams would receive compensatory third-round selections in each of the next two NFL Drafts because he is a minority.
The picks wouldn't come from the hiring team, they would be additional selections added to the third round as a way to try to fix the lack of diversity in hiring coaches. This system went into place in 2020.
Thus far, the Washington Commanders and Atlanta Falcons have requested to interview Morris for coaching vacancies. Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, Jim Harbaugh and Mike Vrabel are all available currently, so this might be a difficult cycle for coordinators -- particularly one with a mostly defensive background -- to get hired.
At the same time, Morris has earned a second opportunity to lead a team. He went 17-31 as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach from 2009-2011, but he didn't inherit a great situation and was very young.
The Falcons went 4-7 after Morris was named the interim coach in 2020, which is pretty impressive when you consider they had been 0-5 before Dan Quinn was fired. There was some surprise when the Falcons hired Arthur Smith to be their coach before the 2021 season, rather than giving Morris the job on a full-time basis.
For his part, Morris has remained focused publicly on the Rams Wild Card playoff matchup with the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
“I think as you go through this profession the people that request you for these moments, they respect winning more than they respect anything," Morris said. "So I think their expectations for me are to just present my best self when I talk to those guys and really just be authentic."
Morris isn't eligible to go through any virtual interviews until Wednesday, and couldn't be hired by a team until after the Rams are eliminated from the postseason.
"I really believe I’ll handle that when that time comes and is there because Raheem Morris, in the third person speaking, I’m going to be the same person anyway. So I have to go give them my best self and my best version is required.”
