Head Coach Candidate Profile: Raheem Morris

Taking a closer look at Rams DC and the scheme he runs in LA

With the Washington Commanders hiring 49ers assistant general manager Adam Peters to be their new general manager, the focus now turns to who Peters would like to hire as his new head coach. Last week I broke down the schemes of two of the rumored favorites in Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. I also looked at Ravens defensive coordinator Mike MacDonald, who is likely to be one of the most popular candidates on the defensive side of the ball. 

Today I thought I’d take a closer look at Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris. Now Morris doesn’t have a direct link to Peters in terms of having been on the same team as him, but Morris is another that came from that famous Washington staff of 2012 and has worked with Kyle Shanahan on multiple occasions. Shanahan himself said recently that if he was hiring a head coach this offseason, Morris would be the guy. Given Adam Peters just spent the past seven years in San Francisco with Shanahan, those words could well carry some significant weight.

Now the first thing to note about Morris isn’t anything to do with his scheme. He’s widely regarded as an excellent leader and just about every player that has played for him speaks glowingly about him. It’s not only players either, Rams head coach Sean McVay credits Morris hugely for helping him through some rough patches both on and off the field and says Morris played a huge role in the Rams winning the Super Bowl a few years ago. 

Morris also has been around the league for a while and on a number of different coaching staffs. He’s coached on both sides of the ball too, which means he’s incredibly knowledgeable but also that he is extremely well connected and could likely build out a very strong coaching staff around him. All of this means Morris has the potential to be a better head coach than he is a defensive coordinator, and he’s a pretty good defensive coordinator. With that being said, let’s get onto his scheme.

Morris has built the Rams around a base 3-4 defense. The reason for doing this is versatility. When the Rams had Von Miller on the edge and Aaron Donald at defensive tackle, they could afford to just rush their front four and play coverage behind it. But now, the Rams don’t have that dominant edge presence, so instead Morris has to make up for that with his scheme. By playing a 3-4 base, the Rams find outside linebackers that will line up as edge rushers but are also capable of dropping into coverage, much like Casey Toohill in Washington. 

The benefit of this is being able to disguise blitzes and pressure packages, using simulated pressures that involve rushing a linebacker or a defensive back and having an edge rusher sink off into coverage to make up the numbers. Morris leans on simulated pressures pretty heavily, but he doesn’t just do it the conventional way.

Here we see an example of a simulated pressure from the Rams. The Rams show a pretty basic look here with four lineman, two linebackers and five defensive backs. Both safeties are back deep, though one is a little wider and aligned over the slot receiver to the right. From this look, the Seahawks are likely expecting just the front four to rush, but if any pressure is likely to come it’s probably from their left side. 

When a defense uses a simulated pressure, the idea is to attack a protection scheme and try and generate an overload on one side while still being able to play a basic zone coverage behind it. But here, Morris sends the pressure from the right side, which leaves the cornerback and safety to that side in man coverage. The linebacker from that side rushes, forcing the right tackle to squeeze inside and pick him up, leaving the edge rusher to that side completely unblocked. Meanwhile, the offensive line slides left, where they spot the edge rusher to that side dropping off into coverage and nobody replacing him on that side. 

All of this leads to the Rams getting a free rusher off the edge and the quarterback under pressure immediately. Fortunately for the Seahawks, the quarterback is able to identify the free rusher and throw the ball away quickly, but it’s ultimately still a win for the defense. 

Morris does a really nice job scheme up these sim pressures and getting free rushers from them. The defense is only rushing four, but he disguises the looks so well that the offense never knows which four and therefore which way to slide to pick them up. Morris has even taken the disguises to the point of faking blitzes from one side to try and bait a protection change. 

On this play in that same Seahawks game, the Rams have the linebacker on the right side of the line fake a blitz just before the snap. The quarterback puts his hands together to try and fake a snap, hoping to bait the defense into showing their intentions. But what actually happens is the defense baits him. The linebacker charges forward towards the line, faking a blitz. The quarterback spots that and steps up to the line of scrimmage to change his protection, getting the line to slide to the right to help pick up that blitzing linebacker. 

However, when the quarterback resets and snaps the ball, that linebacker isn’t the one that rushes. That linebacker drops into coverage while the linebacker from the other side joins the rush. With the line now sliding right, the left tackle is left with a two-on-one. He does as all tackles are taught, squeeze inside and take away the most direct route to the quarterback. The tackle picks up the rushing linebacker, but that again leaves the edge rusher completely unblocked, which again forces the quarterback to throw the ball away. 

Morris’ sim pressures are very good on their own, but the Rams also have one of the best defensive players in football history on their roster in defensive tackle Aaron Donald. Donald is one of the most disruptive defensive lineman in football and is extremely hard to block one-on-one. Morris obviously knows this and uses it to his advantage. When Donald is in the game, Morris knows the line is going to slide towards him more often than not to try and get multiple blockers on him. We just saw what happens when the Rams bait a protection slide in one direction, but having Donald is kind of a cheat code in forcing a line slide his way. 

This is the same simulated pressure we just saw against the Seahawks, but this time against the Cowboys midway through the season. This time, the linebacker doesn’t have to fake a blitz because Donald is in the game and lined up over the right guard. Morris and the Rams know that the Cowboys will be sliding their protection right to try and help block Donald, which means they can use that same sim pressure off the other side. 

The edge rusher to Donald’s side drops off into coverage and Donald widens his rush outside. The line slides his way to try and help pick him up which again leaves the left tackle two-on-one. The tackle squeezes inside and the edge rusher is once again given a free run at the quarterback. 

Using Donald to open up things for others is just one method Morris uses. He also is well aware that Donald is his best player and makes sure to do what he can to generate good matchups for him. He can do that again using sim pressures.