Raheem Morris Is Smart
December 05, 2008 at 11:22am by Scott • 8 Comments »
The Times has a pretty good article on Raheem Morris today, which focuses on his position regarding the Monte Kiffin move to Tennessee and his future with the Buccaneers. Of course, he says nothing useful.
“You listen to it,” said Morris, the Bucs’ 32-year-old defensive backs coach, of the talk of Monte Kiffin leaving. “The thing you can’t do is get caught up in it.
“You’re talking about arguably the best of all time at that position. You let it play it out.”
The interesting part is about is current contract, which expires at the end of this season. That was by Morris’s design.
“Why am I a free agent? It’s just my choice,” Morris said. “It’s nothing with the Buccaneers. They’ve been awesome. I just chose not to put myself in a position to lock myself up.”
Previous Buccaneer defensive coaches (Rod Marinelli, Mike Tomlin, Joe Barry) have had their share of troubles with the Bucs, particularly Bruce Allen, when they wanted to break their contracts to pursue promotions with other teams. Allen had good reasons in each case for holding those guys back, but it left them pretty bitter toward the team. Morris didn’t want to put himself in the same position that they were in, so he insisted on a short-term contract to leave himself available to other teams that may want to make him a defensive coordinator. That takes some huge balls and serious confidence in his own abilities. If the Buccaneer secondary had tanked, he’d be screwed.
“If the opportunity presents itself, I just wanted to have the choice (to go somewhere else). It’s no secret they’ll make the choice for you. And that’s fine. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, and they’ve done a great job with the coaches. All the guys they’ve held back have become head coaches or have become coordinators. So they’ve done something right.”
The article goes on to suggest that Morris could skip being a coordinator altogether and move right into a head coaching spot. A lot of head coaches will lose their jobs after the season, so there will definitely be some openings, but I don’t see it happening with Morris. Morris is still so young, I think most owners and general managers would like to see him with a year or two of NFL coordinator experience under his belt before letting him sit in the big chair, kind of like Tomlin. There’s a big difference between Kansas State and an NFL team (exception: the Lions) and there are enough college head coaches, unemployed NFL head coaches and current NFL coordinators to fill the positions next season.
But Morris will definitely be in demand. He seems to like the Buccaneer organization, but isn’t so loyal that he won’t wait until the end of the season to weigh his options. Unless the team threw a ridiculous amount of money at him to skip his own free agency, he’s going to let his contract expire and then get taken to several nice dinners in February. Very smart business move on his part. If the Bucs lose out on Morris, I’d bet Larry Coyer (current defensive line coach) would get the DC gig. That would be okay, I suppose, but Morris is the top shelf choice and Allen really should consider dropping a big bag of cash on him right now to extend his contract.
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8 Comments to “Raheem Morris Is Smart”
bigchet (December 05, 2008 at 12:06pm) :
I’m not sold yet on Coyer as a DL coach, let alone the DC. The DL has played well against the run, but I’m not seeing improvement on the “key” players that I thought we’d see (Gaines and Haye). I’m also feeling that Kiffen’s disguising some of the DL’s weaknesses with his play calling. That’s not to say that I don’t think Coyer’s good, I just need to see another year and what the Line does. I also remember the first 6 games that Coyer was coordinator for the Broncos and how great that defense was for him and then how bad they were in the last 8 games that year. He went from the best defense to the worst.
I’d really like to see Morris take the DC position if/when Kiffen leaves, but what bothers me about that, is that he’s only going to be with the Bucs for about 1 season before he gets a Head Coaching position.
The consistency that Kiffen brings each week is what Buc fans will miss and we’ll all really realize how great he was once he’s gone.
TheBrainStem (December 05, 2008 at 12:45pm) :
Chet: Morris was a coach here before, he just left last year to be the defensive coordinator at Kansas State and came back this year so he has more that just this one year.
bigchet (December 05, 2008 at 01:00pm) :
TBS: Correct, what I meant, but didn’t get from my hands to the keyboard was that I think he’ll only be in the DC position for 1 season and then move on to a Head Coaching job just like Tomlin.
TheBrainStem (December 05, 2008 at 01:27pm) :
Oh yeah, I agree I see him taking our or another DC job and shortly after that being promoted. The reason I worry about that is I don’t think after Morris we are not going to have any coaching depth. Kiffin mentored the Head Coaches that started in our system. Once Kiffin leaves then what. We might get a good DC(barring we lose Morris) but the stable of coaches and assistants underneath I don’t think will ever get close to what we have had in the past. One good thing we got going is defensive coaches will want to work for a team where the defense is already established.
Scott (December 05, 2008 at 01:59pm) :
Jimmy Lake is the next Raheem Morris. Chances are very good he will come back to Tampa after the culling of Detroit takes place at the end of the season. If Morris becomes DC, Lake will be the secondary coach. He will be a defensive coordinator within five years.
bigchet (December 05, 2008 at 02:10pm) :
I keep hearing about the possibility of Marinelli coming back after he’s fired, but I can’t see that happening. Though much wasn’t made of it, I do believe that there’s too much between him Allen and Gruden and the playing out the contract rules the Bucs have held to in the past.
Jon (December 05, 2008 at 02:50pm) :
Bigchet is right on about Coyer. When he was in Denver, they had absolutely no pass rush from their D-line. Because of that, I thought he was a suspect hire as a Buc D-line coach, and I still wonder about his lack of results. I hope we get Morris, but if not, then Marinelli. But Marinelli’s history with Allen (as bigchet alluded to), may prevent that. Plus, I’ve been reading that Marinelli might be headed to Chicago, to be DC under Lovie.
Scott (December 05, 2008 at 03:14pm) :
Coyer had a lot of success in previous seasons with the Broncos. He kind of petered out there at the end; but he had all those Cleveland castoffs to work with — not exactly an elite bunch. I think he’d be a decent coordinator if he gives up the D-line responsibilities and works on bringing the entire defense together. You know… coordinating it.
Marinelli is an awesome D-line coach but proved he can’t head coach. How would he be as a coordinator? I don’t think it matters — I don’t see him coming back to Tampa.
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