SANTA CLARA – Two decades ago, when Kyle Shanahan broke into the NFL coaching ranks, he was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive assistant who would crash the team’s defensive meetings to learn that side of the ball. Also in those discussions was Raheem Morris, the assistant defensive backs coach.
That Shanahan-Morris connection would continue onto two other coaching staffs – in Washington and Atlanta – before Sunday’s confirmation of yet another reunion.
Shanahan is hiring Morris to serve as the 49ers’ fifth defensive coordinator in as many seasons, a league source stated Sunday.
Morris, 49, succeeds Robert Saleh, who was hired as the Tennessee Titans coach after reprising his role as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator this past season after serving as Shanahan’s initial DC from 2017-20.
Shanahan brought Gus Bradley aboard a year ago as an assistant head coach and also as a likely heir apparent if Saleh left to fill a head-coaching vacancy.
Morris became available when the Atlanta Falcons unexpectedly fired him after a two-year run, and they’ve overhauled their hierarchy by hiring former MVP quarterback Matt Ryan as president, Kevin Stefanski as coach and Ian Cunningham as general manager.
Morris was in contention for the final head-coach vacancies among 10 openings in this offseason’s cycle, but those last two spots are tagged for former Shanahan assistants in Klint Kubiak and Mike LaFleur, with the Las Vegas Raiders and the Arizona Cardinals, respectively.
Morris went 17-31 in his first stint as a coach, taking over the Bucs in 2009-11, then going 4-7 as the 2020 Falcons’ interim coach before returning for 8-9 seasons each of the past two years.
Morris also has a strong familiarity with the NFC West, having served as the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator from 2021-23; that 2021 team beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game en route to a Super Bowl win. Morris’ other Super Bowl ring came in his first season on an NFL staff, when he was the 2002 Buccaneers’ defensive quality control coach on a team that included John Lynch, then a Hall of Fame-bound safety and now the 49ers’ ninth-year general manager.
Before Shanahan’s 49ers posted a 20-10 home win over Morris’ Falcons in a Sunday night affair last Oct. 19, Shanahan praised Atlanta’s defense for its ability to create pressures and change coverages behind it, stating: “They’re very active, they’re very aggressive, play very hard and have some speed.”
The 49ers dominated, however, by running 39 times for 174 yards, including 129 yards and two touchdowns by Christian McCaffrey. Afterward, Morris said: “I’ve played these guys a lot. When Kyle is able to maintain possession, able to run the football the way he was tonight, when he’s able to take over the time possession, when you break even with him in turnover situations, you lose those games. And any critical mistakes that were happening in the game throughout the coaching standpoint, that’s how you lose games versus Kyle Shanahan.”
The 49ers’ defense was hardly described that way last season while it merely fought for survival after losing marquee starters Nick Bosa and Fred Warner in the first six games. Morris will inherit a unit that underwent a major personnel shift last offseason but brings back 2025 draft picks Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, C.J. West, Marques Sigle and Nick Martin.
While Kubiak’s hiring by the Raiders is expected after he completes his duties as Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator in Super Bowl LX next Sunday, the Cardinals announced on Sunday the hiring of LaFleur, who had run the Rams’ offense since 2023.
Running back Christian McCaffrey, in an interview at Sunday’s Pro Bowl Games practice, told Sirius/XM NFL Radio’s Kirk Morrison about Kubiak: “Klint’s amazing. The whole Kubiak family, it’s a special family. He’s somebody that’s poised and under control. But he’s a killer.”