 Good afternoon y'all welcome. I want to make a quick announcement before we get started. Our owner Arthur Blanks very disappointed to not be here today. He had a minor medical issue come up over this weekend and he's being treated. He's doing really well and he's resting today. I spoke into him several times over the last couple hours. He's very disappointed not be here. He knows you have questions you want to ask him so we are going to hopefully work on a teleconference later in the week as he starts to feel better. So stay tuned on details for that but that is why Arthur's not here. Again he's in great spirits and he's really excited about the man that's sitting in the center seat. He's also because I know some of you asked he's very pleased that FIFA yesterday added another validation to his vision for what this building is and what it means long term for the great city of Atlanta. So with that we're going to get started. We'll turn over to our president of the Atlanta Falcons Greg Beatles. Thank you Brad. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on this very historic and exciting day for us for the Falcons. We're excited to welcome Raheem Morris here as our next head coach and his beautiful family over here. Excited to welcome his beautiful family back to Atlanta as well. Thank you guys all you all you media for being here and covering us throughout the year. We do appreciate it. Thank you to all our fans, friends, family that are watching with us online today as well. We appreciate all your support. So first just a few things about the search itself. We began in earnest back on January 8th after the press conference and as you've seen we had 14 just outstanding candidates. Arthur promised that we would have a very thorough process, thorough search and we did. We had a wonderful team working, supporting us, doing a lot of research, working through all the interviews. So I want to thank all them for the great work that they've done for the last month or so and excited that we've landed on the right leader here with Raheem for our team. So we will start out. We'll have a few words from from Terry. He'll pass it over to Raheem and then David Basti's gonna moderate us and we'll wrap up before 3 o'clock. All right guys. So again like Greg said really appreciate everyone being here particularly Raheem's family. Very exciting. It's a really exciting day for all of us. I'll start or I'll go back. I haven't addressed anyone so I want to go back to the season just briefly and I understand that we all had high aspirations for this season. We didn't reach our marks and we didn't get to where we need to get this past season and there were some positives but but clearly we didn't reach our goals. That's on all of us starting with me. At the end of every season whether you win seven games, 12 games, or you win the Super Bowl you're always gonna take a step back and look at every process and go through the entire organization and look at areas you need to improve and that's what we're always going to be doing. We're always looking in the mirror and the entire building. We're all looking at ways to improve. We understand that difficult decisions are made and we know Arthur Blank has said that those decisions aren't taken lightly. You know I want to acknowledge Arthur Smith and we had a great relationship, a very collaborative relationship, and I would say from 2021 to to this point right now we do believe that this team is in a different place and Arthur played a big part in that. So we wish him and Alice and his family the absolute best moving forward as they take their next steps in Pittsburgh. As we get into the search Greg said it was a thorough process. It was very detailed and organized. Very appreciative of everyone involved in the search. Our entire organization was involved. There are some specific people. I'm not going to start naming people, but it was an excellent process. Very thorough. There were excellent candidates from former head coaches to there's some candidates that have become head coaches since then and also some that we know will be head coaches and we appreciate that because that's not easy to go through that. Some guys are in the playoffs. You really put yourself out there when you're going through that process and so it was very thorough, it was very detailed. We really appreciate everyone that was involved in it. Through that search, it was very clear that there was one person that really stuck out and that's right. He Morris and it was his infectious energy, his natural leadership, his his charisma, his his football instincts and intelligence, but also his collaborative mindset and the way he puts people around him and listens and empowers people. His clear vision for what we're going to do here and he's been a two Super Bowl. He's been a three Super Bowl. He's got two rings and we're going to get him another one. That's our charge, but it's been very fun working with Raheem these last 10 days and I don't know when he sleeps because he's on the West Coast and I'm on the East Coast and he usually wakes me up in the morning about five. I'm getting texts from me wants to he's a FaceTime guy likes to FaceTime. So I know his family will already I've met all Nicole and the kids because we're always FaceTime and but it's been excellent as we've gone through and putting together the staff. The next step will be to work through our roster and really get into that getting to formulating our offseason plan, how we're going to attack for agency, how we're going to attack the draft and we're going to make sure we put together a team and that is competing for championships and that is having sustained winning. That's what our owner, Arthur Blank, our organization and most importantly, our fans deserve. So with that, I'm very excited to join Arthur Blank, Greg, our entire organization and welcoming back to Atlanta. Raheem and his family. Thank you. That was awesome. No, this is a pretty tight crew today, I can see. Got to loosen you guys up a little bit. I know Allison's back there. She's pretty excited about this. But I had to loosen the crew up. You know, this is not one of those tight situations. I want you guys to be comfortable in this environment because we'll be here a lot, right? And it's pretty cool. But I want to start off by first thinking my family. I know they've been mentioned three times already, but I wouldn't be in this position without my extended family, my immediate family, whatever you want to call them over there. But my lovely wife, Nikki, my daughter, I didn't even know I couldn't even look at her anymore. My 13 year old daughter, Maya, my eight year old little princess over there, Malia, and that little dude we call Jalen. Fired up to have those guys here for me. And what a wonderful deal. My mom and dad, I'm fortunate to be here. And just delighted and doing it for the second time and getting this position and then having your parents have to be a part of that and a part of back getting back into the situation. And I can't tell you how good that feels as a son and as a person inside this family and being with these guys and just everybody that came today to support me and my in-laws, my brother-in-laws, my mother-in-law, everybody involved in it is absolutely outstanding that they're all here with us. They're with me. My agent in the back, Brian Levy, he's got the camera. He thinks he's part of the meeting today. Outstanding guy, him and Cedric Saunders. And I wouldn't be here without the Lausanne's and their help and what they've done for me and and everything that's happening with our family and everything that's moving forward. And I thank you guys for coming to support me today. Next, I just wanted to thank the Blink family and you guys know how close and tightly related I am with the Blink family. But to make this thing happen, to be a part of each other, so thankful, so thoughtful, what a process that I went through with the with everybody, just the National Football League in general, but having to be a part of the Atlanta Falcons is absolutely outstanding. I know the family well from the sons and Josh and Max to Arthur himself, to everybody that was involved, that was there every day on a day-to-day basis. This organization with Greg, with Rich McKay, with Terry, and everybody that was a part of that with Brett Jukes, all of us says it's so nice to come back and see familiar faces for when you were here the first time and to be able to meet some new people that you're really excited to work with and you're really ecstatic to work with. That was such an awesome feeling. And also want to thank the people where I come from in LA and the Cronkies and their family and Josh and Stan and just the all-out support that they gave me all the way from the top, going to Lesney and Sean McVay, Kevin Demoff, Tony Pasteur and the people out in LA were absolutely outstanding and how they supported me through the whole process, how they've guided me through the whole process, they've let me grow, they've matured everything that you've done in this business and some of those things. I want to let you guys know I do understand the importance of being the first black coach in Atlanta history without an interim tag, understand the importance for that for us, understand that importance for the people before me, the people after me, the current people right now, understand the importance of that and how important that is to the city, particularly where we are right now in the mecca of black history, right? I think that's very important to acknowledge. The next thing I want to talk about is really the we factor. I am so excited to collaborate with Terry Fontenot and his family and our organization and his group and everything that they've done, right? Since I've left they've done nothing but build pieces and get just a tight-knit team put together. They've added to the culture that I can't wait to be a part of and add to and I just think that was a really important factor for me to come back and a really important factor of allowing me to come back and be a part of that and I can't say enough about what the people around me have done moving forward and how we're going to move forward together. Make no mistake about it, right? The community supports us on Sundays to go out and win a game and it's our job to support this community in a bigger way than you can even imagine. So I understand the importance of that as well. This Atlanta community is awesome. I can still remember the day of paint houses and all of our projects that we do. This whole family, this AMB group is just an outstanding thing to be a part of and I just can't wait to be a part of that thing fully invested in doing all the stuff that we want to do with this community. And then the last thing I mentioned is the reason we're here. It's going to be a winning culture and we're here to win football games. At the end of the year, there's only one team that's happy. And Terry mentioned it, but I've only been in that position twice in my career and I can't wait to go back there again and I can't wait to do it with you. You guys, the media, you're part of this too. You're part of this team. I know you guys are all serious because it's the opening press conference. You give me the meme looks, but I'll get that out of you soon enough. Let's shake this crowd up, man. Let's have some fun and let the next part of this press conference begin with David Bassley leading away. All right, we'll go ahead and open up to Q&A. If you can raise your hand if you have a question, Mike Holders will get to you. We'll start off on the left with Michael Rosting. Yeah, Rahim, you mentioned obviously this is not your over here other left. Sorry. You mentioned that this is obviously not your first go around as a head coach. What did you learn from those three years in Tampa? I know it's a long time ago, but what did you learn from those three years in Tampa that gives you the confidence that will be more successful this time around? Mike, the overall maturity of the profession is really what you got to lean on. The overall growth. Since Tampa, I've dedicated really my professional development to helping whoever I work for at the time. I was fortunate enough to go to Washington and really work with Mike Shanahan and be a rounded and see a guy that's won Super Bowls as a head coach, be with him and just really develop and him allowing me to be behind the curtain, so to speak. Moving forward to hear with Dan Quinn and going through the process, what we were able to do and doing a lot of winning football games and being able to be a major part of helping and contributing to those factors. Having the ability to go out to LA, get the job finished, being behind the curtains there as well and being with that crew, Mike, it's been one of the things that you just can't ever forget about. One of the things that you can never look over and glaze over is the accomplishments that you have in your career. But now coming back and being a part of the collaboration that I, the shared vision, all the things you want to do with Terry and what he's starting to build and so excited to come back and going through this process and really going through it in a detailed fashion, I think it's the things that will help us move forward. I'm fully prepared. I've been preparing for this since the last day when I was in Tampa, right? And you spend the rest of your time and the rest of your coaching career, you finished up, figured out when you got ready for that moment. And this is the moment. And now it's time to go, Mike, and I can't wait to deal with you, even though I can't find you in the crowd. That's a big deal, Mike. You're asking the first one, I thought we're gonna zoom in. I mean, listen, I can't control that. He's in Vegas. He's Boston's hat. The, Terry, for you, I mean, three weeks ago, a month ago, whatever it was, when Arthur Blank and Richard McKay were sitting up there, they said that, you know, it was really them that you'd have input. How much input did you end up having in this entire process as you're the, you know, the one up here, at least from a football perspective, that's answering the questions today since Arthur Blank's not here. Yeah, and Mike, I appreciate the trust and, and Arthur allowed me to lead that process, and there were a lot of people that were obviously heavily involved in, in that process from Greg Beatles, Rich McKay, our assistant GM, Kyle Smith, Ryan Pace. A lot of people put a lot of work into that process, and we know the ultimate decision is on Arthur Blank, but I've learned a lot from the way Arthur leads, because he's making the final decisions, but he's very collaborative and he wants to hear, he wants everyone to be involved and wants to hear what everyone has to say, so I was empowered to lead that process. We know Arthur made the ultimate decision, but it was, it was an excellent process and we're excited about the result. Right, please state your name and affiliation. Absolutely, hey coach, Rex Cascio from WRBL News. First of all, congratulations on the job. This coaching search had a lot of big names as well, with Coach Belichick, where you could talk to the casual fan about like his resume, not saying you're not qualified, but for some people who may be, you know, a little apprehensive with this decision, how can you assure with Falcons fans that they made the right choice when you can do for them? You know, Rex, when you're talking about competing, anything that we do, you're always talking about going against the very best and Coach Belichick, and have you want to word it or have you want to write that, he's going to be considered the very best, if not the best, whoever do it in our profession, and I got so much respect for what he's done in his career. I would never, ever feel slighted or feel anything other way than what people would feel about a Coach Belichick, right? But you got a process in place and you go through it and let the best man win, and whatever the case may be, I'm just fortunate to be sitting here in front of you, but to tell Falcons fans that we're going to go out there and do because of our football character, being accountable, being disciplined, being coachable, being dependable, I think those are the things that's got to get us going in the right direction. I don't think we can really focus on who was in the process, what you were doing in the process, it's just like going to play a game, right? When you go play those games, it really doesn't matter who's across those lines, it's our job to go out there and get wins, and that was my job in this whole process, it's how I looked at it, right? I got so much respect for anybody who's interviewed or been a part of this process that I can speak the world about all of and it's not just Coach Belichick, it's all of them, it's all the people that we interviewed. Now, do I know their names? No, because they didn't matter at the time, right? They were all, most of them were Gray Matter, because it was just a competition, you're going out to present your best self, being your best self, being the best version of yourself, and that's all I can be every single day. Go back left, Allison. Hey, Allison. How are you? Get to see you again. At what point, I guess, when you left in 2020, could you ever have imagined that you would be back here being the head coach for the Atlanta Falcons? Allison, you hit the nail in the head. This is coming home, and when you get a chance to go back home in this profession, it is extremely important, and it is extremely critical to everybody involved, and that is a special moment, not just for me, but for my family, for everybody involved, for the media members that I see around that I know. I can feel the excitement through my texts. I can feel the excitement through the phone calls. I can look at DJ Shockley right now and feel the excitement, even though he's trying to be very serious in the back, but this has been a process for me that has been outstanding and so much fun. I can't tell you, I can express the joy that I have right now to be able to come back and work with the Blinks, to be able to come back and work with all these people around me that I've been with for years, and I could talk about this for the rest of the press conference, and I probably may bore you, but I don't know if you ever been in this spot to coming back home, but this is certainly the best feeling in the world. Go to Bailey, back right. Hey, Coach. Bailey Burmester, Atlanta news first. Welcome. Kind of going off of that, I'm curious from 2020 to now, being here as the head coach, where do you feel like you've grown and changed both personally and professionally to make this feel different? Bailey, that goes back to me talking about where I've come from, right? Getting the chance to go help a friend in Shaw McGuvey, go win a championship. Getting the chance to go be around less need and really be jealous of that relationship, right? When I got there, one of the first things I told Sean, just noticing how we moved the daily rhythm and routine and things that we've done was man, I am jealous of you and less needs relationship. I said to watch you guys collaborate and move in silence, to be able to talk about everything, have your communication ongoing, have your communication consistent, honest, open, all of those things that you guys do with each other. That is the next step. The maturity level that you get from that and being able to watch that and also talking to one of your really good friends while you're winning a championship, having the ability to go through some hard times that following year, having to get a start off with a really young team and start with your fundamentals, start with your physicality, start with controlling a ball, start with some of those pillars. I thought it was a really cool process. It was a really cool learning experience for me. It was no more fun and helping one of your best friends in the world, one of the people that you care about, winning a championship with an organization, having a chance to take all of those lessons learned, being able to listen, being able to communicate, and now bringing it back here to the Atlanta community to go out here and win what we need to do. And I got a lot of confidence that we can do that with the people that I know are here. We'll go Gay Burns on your left. Hi, Raheem. Congrats. Gay Burns, AJC. Could you just give us a little insight into your coaching staff and why Robinson and like were the right guys to bring over? Yeah, I could talk about Robinson first. You know, Robinson is our officer coordinator for those who don't know. And I explained to these guys when we talked about our staff and we talked about this collaborative effort of going to look for people and being detailed and the people that we wanted to bring in. And Robinson, from my head and my experience made a lot of sense. I was around the young Kyle Shanahan, and I saw him really develop and grow into this great play caller that we know that's planned next week. Right? I was around Shawn McVay when he was young, really young. Right? He was with my family, really young. And I watch him grow and develop into this great player that we know, play caller that we know. And when I talked about it, you start to name the names to Mike McDaniels. You start to name the names to Matt LaFleur and all the people that you're able to work with, right? This organization was the first organization to allow me to coach on both sides of the ball, right? Whether it was switching in the middle of the season, whether it was switching during the season, whatever the case was. And I saw it. I worked with people. I was with Dirk Cutter. I was with all these guys, Steve Sarkeesian, those people in the playoffs. And I see Zach Robinson. And I see him in the same light, right? I see him growing. I see him develop. And I see him bringing this timing and rhythm and this balance to our offerings that we can have and go out here and play. And whatever it looks like, it's going to be fast. It's going to be with those based on those pillars that we talked about earlier. And those are the things that really just lit me up and made me ecstatic to have an opportunity to bring a guy like Zach Robinson to proud of this. And I won't go as a labyrinth to the rest of the people, but I go so far back with Jimmy Lake, talking about our Tampa days, our core beliefs, some of the things that we believe in, likely minded, likely mindedness, his ability to go call it in college, really have a real tenure in college where you climb the ladder of his defensive coordinator, going to a head coach, having the ability to go through some hard times, fighting through some things. So the people you want to be around are really people that have really fought through the process. And then I get here, Marquise is here. And you're talking about a young, dynamic coach that you can bring going and keep a part of your staff because of the people you notice you've been around that you trust and that's hired this guy. And I thought that was really impressive to me and I thought that was really important to be around the right people, right? This is a people business. And I'll just talk about my coordinates right now unless you have Pacifics. But I was really excited to be able to bring those guys a part of the Atlanta Falcon family. Got Josh Kendall on the right. Josh Kendall with the athletic. You refer to this as home, why? You know, Josh, I spent a lot of time in Atlanta before I was even in Atlanta, right? I was a frequent Mount Sky visitor, right? That allowed me to be around Arthur and his whole family, his entire family, and be a part of those that whole nature of what it looks like, right? And a big part of what we do here is listening, right? And when I was here, I had the ability to grow and learn and develop and switching both sides of the ball like I just mentioned, right? At the same place, at the same time, doing whatever it takes to win football games. Being here in 2016 and reaching the pinnacle and just coming up short, right? That was a real critical moment for me, right? So only not only knowing the owner as the owner but knowing them as a personal level. I've been hired by Rich McKay three times, right? In Tampa, here twice, actually four, right? I mean, you don't get no more home than actually having the ability to talk about those things. Greg Beatles, I remember, I walked by this guy on the hallway when he didn't say a word, right? And I would walk by Greg Beatles at four o'clock in the morning and he'd be the only person in the building. I'm wondering who was this guy in the building with me, right? And now he's the president of this organization and we're moving in the right directions. And these people here are just a part of my life. You know, they know my family I know their families and I can't wait to build this thing, man. This thing is different, right? You know, we spend more time with the people that we work with sometimes more than our own families, right? And I have no idea how my wife's made my daughter sit this still in this long and be this patient. But she's done an unbelievable job and it's no different than what they've done with me and my development. That's why this is home. When you walked in the door at Tampa Bay, what did you think was the single most important part of a head coach's job? And is that answer different as you sit there right now? It's a hundred percent, right? When you're 32 years old, you got all the answers, right? Just ask me and I'll tell you, right? And what you find out is is a learning process every single day. And you better be able to lean on people and talk to people and find out what is the best thing that work, right? When I took this job and I got offered it, right? By Terry and Arthur, obviously making the decision, but I told him in my interview process, I said, hey, I don't need to be the smartest person to build it. I want to hire, I want to have, I want to be contribute, I want to collaborate with all the smart people that you've assembled. I mean, you talking about Carl Peterberg back there? You talking about one of the smartest men I know, right? And like, I want to be to collaborate with all those guys and get into the building and do those things and find out what's the best way to move forward with everybody that we're doing. Every person that we've brought into the staff, whether it be any position, whether it's chief of staff, Steve Skarnakia, and you bring a guy like that to give direction and do the things that you want to do. And you join him with Sarah who's going to absolutely take us to the next level, what we want to do and how we collaborate and how we go about our business. We're talking about Terry being with Kyle and talking about Ryan Pace. The development over the last 10 days has just been so much fun that I'm so excited to get to the job and actually get the flowery branch. I heard it's a construction site but I can't wait to get out there to do what we need to do. And then all those things and all those factors that you build throughout the process help you learn and grow. And if you don't get, I learned a long time ago in Tampa Bay from John Groove when I took my first job in 2002, the first time Rich McKay hired me. And John always tell us, he said, you need to get better or you get worse. And I've been in the process of getting better since those days and that moment leading up to us right now. On your right, Stake. Hey, Coach. Stake Shapiro, 92.9 the game. Unfortunately, seven years ago was a seminal moment for Atlanta Sports as you were up on the sideline to watch it. I'm wondering how much appreciation you have for the pain of that moment and how it's shaped some of the Falcon fans. And if you allowed yourself to think about for yourself and the fans of Atlanta and the folks that have been through what that was, what it would be like to kind of bring it all back home and you be a part of that and what it would mean for this community. You won the war for best dress, by the way. I'll tell you this. It is a part of coming home, right? That 2016 loss, it stings as bad as anyone I've ever had. Actually, the worst I've ever had on a stinging momentum, right? And to be able to come back here and get some some real cool redemption, right? I want to watch Arthur Blank work done. Some of these guys hold up that trophy. Do you think, yeah, do you think you have a let me finish? Oh, sorry. You're going to ask a question before I get finished. Oh, it was a pause. That was a dramatic pause. I'm trying to give you these real dramatic pauses. Yeah. And you just don't want to buy in. But that moment for us and our fans, and it's just not that moment. We were a part of it. We were all of us. We added some pieces. We got different players. We got new leadership. We got different things in place that's going to help us rewrite that history. And I'm going to be writing it with the fans and they're going to be writing it with us, right? That support that I'm going to show those guys and the support that they're going to show us, we will change that narrative because we can. Go ahead now. No, that's it. Do you think the pieces, do you see enough pieces here that that process looks like it could be on its way and is there a mindset of how long it would take? You know what the cool part about that is is you go through this process and you talk about all these other jobs, right? And you go home and every time you think about interviewing for a different spot, you think about how you would create, how you would form, how you would collaborate with the people that are there, what you want to do. And this one you set home and you're just thinking, man, I hope Terry calls me today. Come on, Terry, just pick up the phone and make the call. Somebody go in there and talk to Arthur and let's get this thing done, right? And you do it because of the things that everybody here was a part of, right? Terry's done a great job along with the people and the help around this building in order to form the team and put them in position to go out there and win, right? It's a big old elephant in the back of the room and who's going to be the trigger man? Who's going to do those things and let's go collaborate together. Let's go figure out those things. Let's go put ourselves in the best position to go win football games and I got a lot of confidence in the people in this room that we can. Mark Zinno on your left. Raheem, Mark Zinno, nice to know the game. This is for you and Terry as well, kind of dovetailing that, you know, taking this job right now with an owner who has clearly expressed his desire to win now with a roster that looks like it's ready to win now. I know you're in year one and there usually is some grace period, but Terry also in year four, how much pressure do you feel at this moment to get this team to the playoffs and win now in your first year for both of you? If you can give me an opportunity, let me know which owner doesn't give you pressure to win now. I'd like to feel that question back to you, but like... I don't hang on many in it for hours. This is what we do and you got your skeleton, you're really intimidating, but this job this job has comes with pressure and it comes with pressure that we're all built for and like you got to embrace that. You got to embrace those moments. You got to want those moments. We got to live for those moments. And I don't know about Terry, but like I can't wait to go out here and try to win with this man. Yeah, it's exciting and it's like any other obviously all owners are passionate, but man, I think we have the most passionate owner. He wants to win in the worst way. He's no different than that passionate fan in the front. That's who he is and you get calls at all hours in the night and him just talking about little things because he that's all he thinks about is winning and wanting to do everything he can do to win and he'll provide us anything, literally anything to to help us win. And sometimes it's people like Greg that have to make it happen that have to do it. But look, you go to our facility right now and look at what's going on there. It's exciting looking at what our locker room is going to be, what our weight room is going to be, looking at what things there's a lot of exciting things going on. So we appreciate that about Arthur Blank how passionate he is and we know he'll provide us with whatever we need to win. And the one thing I can add with that too is like and I know I've been talking too much guys but this is my press conference. The one thing I can add with that is it does come with pressure. No doubt about it. But like when you know you are fully supported by the owner the way we are that makes it special too. You know, like we all got pressure. You know that's a part of what we do. That's a part of life. But the support that he shows the direct communication all of those things that you know you can have with them is really important to how we move. And I think that's important. How many conversations have you guys had about the quarterback position and what is that going to look like going forward? You know what's cool about that is we've had very limited conversations about it right now. And the reason being we got to formulate a great staff. We've collaborated more on building this staff and we're almost done. We've got a lot of people in place and we want to get people there. And we've had some conversations in brief passing and we have some ways that we know we can go about getting it obviously free agency obviously trade obviously the draft and those communication to me just landing the other day are going to continue to happen. I'm so tired of looking at this man on zoom that I'm so happy to be here so we can do these things. And he's a lot better looking the person than he's on zoom. And I'm so excited to be here with him and his family and to move forward and to grow our family along with everybody that it's going to be a real cruel process to going out there finding out what we can do and how we can do it. Right next to him Brandon, Home Team Leak. Coach, welcome back to Atlanta Home Team Brandon Leak from Sports Radio 680 the Fan. Welcome back home. Question for you. Follow up on that question. The attributes you've been a Super Bowl champion what are the attributes of a Super Bowl caliber quarterback? You've seen Matt Ryan you've seen Matthew Stafford what are those attributes as you guys search for the right quarterback to get it right and for Terry last time we assembled we were told that in the last power structure you reported to Rich McKay and the coach reported to Rich McKay now the power structure has changed a little bit where you and Coach Morris report to Arthur Blank how is that different for the organization moving forward? Okay, you go first. It doesn't matter I'm tired of talking so you can go. I'm going first. Okay, yeah good great question and so initially the way the process was is I was partners with the head coach reported to Rich McKay and then ultimately Arthur Blank and you had a brand new GM no experience as a GM and you had a brand new head coach no experience as a head coach so that's natural that said the decision making was always ours we kept leadership informed and yet the decision making was always ours and I appreciate having really smart experienced people around that's really important we talk about Arthur Blank we have a lot of conversations sometimes it's not about football where we could be talking about a football decision and he relates it to business and some experiences that he had that's very valuable I like having people like that around Rich McKay he's drafted Hall of Fame players he's hired Hall of Fame head coaches Tony Dungey told me the story about when he went through that process with him and how a lot of other people would have never hired him but the way Rich took his time to get to know him hearing those stories are really valuable you love having that kind of experience around you and the willingness to share those stories not only the ones that were successful the ones that weren't and Rich changes his stories up sometimes they're not always the same but it's real valuable having that experience around I appreciate that and even though he's going to be in some other areas it's you appreciate having that around look my dad lost my dad last year my dad never worked in a front office he never sat in a GMC but I appreciated all those conversations with him because there's life experience so having experienced people around you that you can lean on and communicate with is really important so you value that again that said the decision-making was always myself and author Smith at the time moving forward the decision-making is myself and Raheem we keep everyone informed and that's important I'm excited about moving forward with Greg Beatles you know in the first two years Greg was obviously in a different role and so I didn't have a lot of direct dealings with Greg and yet you respected him from afar and then this last year once he became president there's a lot of direct dealings with him and it's been outstanding Greg's obviously really smart he's an excellent communicator he's very direct and honest and the way Greg went from being an intern and became the president that's a pretty cool story and so he knows every part of the building and he's helped me a lot learn about the business part and some of the nuances that I don't understand in the other areas of the business so it's been great working with Greg he's the type of person that whatever we need he's going to figure out a way to get it done that's who he is if he can help us win he's going to figure out a way so again working with Raheem over these last these previous 10 days it's been really collaborative and fun and obviously Greg we've all we haven't seen I've seen more of these guys and I've seen my wife and that's why she's here today because I haven't seen her in a while but I've spent more time with them so I'm very excited about our setup moving forward and sure and it just answered the question about the quarterback you know we got a real good vision right and obviously to be a shared vision between myself, Terry and our coaching staff and a lot of his scouting staff and the people that we're going to involve in that whole process but we got a real clear understanding what it looks like in Atlanta right we've seen it at a very high level right and what was Matt Ryan you know you're talking about just the people that you've coached and I just come from a real clear what it looks like quarterback when you're talking about Matthew Stafford but when you get those guys that are elite processors when you get those guys that are decision makers when you get those guys that can just cut it loose and play ball and also play with those great fundamental techniques that we're talking about the base, the balance, the short hitches in the pocket some of those things it makes you excited right to go out there and find those things right sometimes not easy to see right obviously you got to look at some college tape sometimes you can see a little bit more for each tape sometimes you can visualize that thing how you can trade right but you got all those windows out there you got all those avenues but I got a lot of confidence and the people that are going to be able to help me and be a part of finding our next quarterback move forward very back right Michael Cunningham question for Terry Arthur has talked about the importance of the collaboration between the coach and the GM when it comes to building the roster what did you see from Raheem in his interviews that let you know this is a guy who I can be on the same page when it comes to that kind of stuff yeah thanks Michael and you know I didn't know Raheem before we got on the Zoom I didn't know him personally but I had been hearing a lot of really positive things about him and even when he was a head coach in Tampa I told him I told him a few things about his press conferences because I used to listen to him and so I've known about him or of him for a long time and the way people talk about him is that part of it he's a really good teammate he's a really good person and when you think of the personal part of it all those things you get into his football acumen it's really impressive but so I was really excited going into the first Zoom and after the first Zoom when you go through it and you really see the way he speaks and the way he communicates I felt like we've known each other forever and we kept going through the process and we take our time and then we obviously had the next interview but all the research that you do on him all the people whether it's current players former players staff members that he's worked with and another part somebody asked about the coaching staff a lot of guys on our coaching staff were excited about staying because of Raheem and they had opportunities we have coaches that had contracts on the table with other teams and they held off because they wanted to see if they were going to have an opportunity here and I'll obviously really honest with them and hey the next day coach is going to meet with you and and Raheem went through that process and did that and guys were really excited about being here they turned out other opportunities to come back and he was willing to to listen to our opinions and then spend time with them so I knew prior to from doing the research and obviously all the time we spent with them thus far it's been exciting Charles Odom on your left Charles Odom with Associated Press so welcome back good to see you yet another quarterback question you spoke about the moving forward to find the right quarterback and we've talked about the roster as it's currently constructed as you make the decisions about how to look at quarterback pre-agency trade draft how important is it to make decisions about is this roster ready to win with just help from the right guy taking the snap and what you're you know how would you compare that to to what you've gone through before you know with the Rams in Tampa Bay first of all it's good to see you again but there's never one reason why you won a championship there's always a bunch of different reasons right and the quarterback is always the elephant that sits in the back of the room that everybody can talk about because usually those are the people that get too much blame sometimes or too much credit at times you know what he's talking about the head coach the quarterback or whatever the case may be but it's the pieces around it right and when you talk about Terry Fountain O'Van your general manager starts there right the collaboration the shared vision some of the things that we were going to do in the last 10 days really excites me then you talk about the piece of the team that's been put in place by everybody here just in general right and you talk about the relentless ability to improve every single day and you're talking about every position that we have on the football team you're talking about role clarity for everybody that we have and how they're going to do and how they're going to go about their business you want to make sure that we are trying to get better at all times right and when you're talking about adding a quarterback those are some of the facts that take you over the top those are the things that give you a chance to win every single game and the quote that Terry mentioned from my Tampa days he talked about was he said he never forgot when I said there's a mentality before there's every reality before there's every reality and when he said it I was like man I did say that that was a cool statement but it's certainly that it is definitely a mentality for us every reality let's go put our people in position to win let's go find the people to do it let's make sure we get real clear defined roles on how we want to do it let's get a vision let's make it happen and go execute it that's the key right next to Charles Ken Raheem Ken Ceguero the general constitution welcome question for both of you guys Raheem first after Tampa your record was what it was did you have concerns or is that you would never get another chance and kind of what was that weight like then Terry as far as you use word leading the search can you describe kind of what that entailed for kind of how your role fit in the process yeah Ken I you don't know me very well but I definitely don't think like that you know like I'm a driven person and you know I'm willing to fight any obstacle put in front of me and my thought process was never having the opportunity to do it again it was more about finding the right opportunity than people to do it with because usually that's the most important thing when you're doing any of these type of jobs like who are you doing it with right and I really don't care about any of the other things right circumstances circumstances how you go about your business it's how you go about your business but coming here bringing a full circle doing it with these people again Greg Beatles you know Rich McKay Terry Arthur Blank Dukes man I am excited right this was the right opportunity this is the opportunity this is our opportunity and and that's how I've always felt that way like I never felt I'm never going into that state of mind and I want to allow myself to and you know I got a lot of reasons over to my left why that won't happen you know a lot of mentally tough people over there I don't know if you know my brother-in-law Michael but he's pretty mentally tough and uh he's the real deal yeah so it uh it was a really it was collaborative like we said and Arthur Blank is going to make the ultimate decision as he did but the entire process was collaborative when I say lead the search in regards to the interviews I was leading the interviews and there were other people and it was very very detailed and organized and and the way we asked questions the way we went through and make sure we got the right answers and made sure we assessed everything and it was very it was a very detailed organized process but I led that process if that makes sense go Reggie back right hey coach congratulations Reggie Chapman 11 alive TV here in Atlanta the NBC station you knew you'd have a talk a lot of stuff talk about a lot of things in this press conference but one of the things you mentioned very early is that it wasn't lost on you that you're the first full-time blackhead coach here for the Atlanta Falcons why is that such a big deal for you and why is that not lost and you know how cool is it also to be sitting alongside Terry as well I'll start with the Terry question first it's really cool to be sitting next to him you know I think you find guys in your life and you want to be a part of and you want to work with and you know these last 10 days have been pretty special but it started even especially just throughout the process right the zoom interview that turned into the in-person and it really turns to this real cool collaboration just in those small moments of time and I thought that was a really cool spark start spot to build right and you mentioned me in the first black coach without the interim tag like I talked about earlier but that's not about me that's about us all of us right that is the progress that is the movement that is what we look for that's been talked about every single process that I've been through and I believe I told something I can't remember who I told but I told somebody in this whole process you know the coolest part about this process was that it wasn't even brought up about it being a lack of diversity about it being a lack of black people having an opportunity to be head coaches right I think it was three in a cycle I don't know exactly but it was never even brought up and I thought that was a real cool moment that that was less about what we talked about and was more about the right people for the job and the right placement for people in their jobs than that that's why I thought it was pretty cool because it was more about the people before me it's more about the people after me you know and particularly that little one sitting over there in Jalen right it's more about him stick at that table with Kelly it's right here right next to him Kelly Price from Fox 5 welcome back I'm curious for you what do you feel like is the biggest difference between the Rahim Morris who's sitting here now and the one that was on that sideline just a couple years ago and was potentially going to be the head coach back then obviously here now what are the biggest differences that you think they may be solved throughout this interview process you know I don't know if there's anything that you've solved throughout the interview process I don't know if you can do it that way I think it's more about my own personal development right sometimes you need to get away from each other you know and you get a chance to go away and you grow and I certainly you know didn't have time to sit around and sulking of the fact that I didn't get it the first time right it was find a way to go get better and I went away I got around some really great people that I mentioned before got a chance to do those things got a chance to have some the ultimate success in this profession found a way to really go through adversity and see who comes out of those things comes out of those moments and find a way to rebuild it and do it again right all the same place in a matter of three years I mean what a ride right before I left LA I went out to eat dinner with Sean and we talked about that I mean what a ride that was for the last three years and all it did was make me better to come back home to find a way to finish off 2016 that we didn't get done not add to that Kelly some people aren't open in talking about their previous experiences if whether they went well or didn't some people aren't very open about it but the openness and the humility and the clear vision of the things that he's seen from all his experiences and how he's adapted he's very open about that but what stuck out about that is I know how smart he is and I know how the acumen and the experience all that stuff I mean there's not many people that can go these are the best in the world what they do to go on either side of the ball that's pretty rare but the humility the natural humility and talking about things and being very open about how he would adjust that really stuck out you probably can't tell Kelly that Raheem's a pretty positive person and you know I think that was something that that made an impression on us was the hard times it has gone through in the past and the learnings that's what he turned it into a learning you know there's a lot of people in this industry if it didn't work out somewhere that they're bitter about that and they can't let go of it and so you know I definitely saw that in Raheem that he wanted to learn from it and he took those learnings and he's been a mentor to all these guys that are that are head coaches and then it felt even when he wasn't a head coach they're all looking to him for for leadership and mentorship and that made a big impact on us Go Joe Patrick front row left Hey Raheem right here Joe Patrick nice to meet you back to the quarterback issue and Terry if you have anything to say about this I'd love to hear it as well but you're obviously have a lot of people people you'll rely on when it comes to making a decision on a quarterback that you might want to acquire I want to ask in particular about Zach Robinson and his background with quarterbacks not just coaching them but obviously his background and having evaluated them how much will you lean on him and just in general with Zach how have you kind of observed him and working with some of the quarterbacks since in LA Sure Zach is one of the cooler guys that you I can't wait to you guys meet him right he's one of the cooler guys to be around right he's played the position you know he's got some really cool stories about playing the position in Oklahoma State and doing some of those things he lost to me when he was at Oklahoma State when I was at Kansas State so make sure you guys remind them that when he gets here but his ability to connect with the quarterback his ability to relate to the quarterback and what they do and how they do and how they go about their process you know how do they get to the point to be ready to play at the highest level that you need to play in this league I thought stood out to me working with them watching the work that he did with the quarterbacks that's come through when I was in the LA Rams has been absolutely outstanding watching his development with golf and then watching to come with Matthew Stafford we go through a year where you do it with a couple different guys in the backup situation we had we had we had Baker Mayfield midway he gets it going wins some games where we probably shouldn't have won because of the ability for those guys to be able to connect getting to this season we get it going again we really rally around our quarterback we find a way to win the whole team has belief and that belief just doesn't start with just the player is the coaches around them it's the people around them it's the things you do to make it really special and he has an amazing ability to connect with guys and get guys and get the best out of them no matter what happens in the most positive way which Greg just mentioned and alluded to but I am fired up to watch them as a teacher I'm fired up to watch them as a mentor as a confidant all of those criteria those criteria that we talk about when we talk about really good coaches and the young man just has really high capacity it really does and I'm fired up to get for it to get him here and get us going if I'm right congratulations that guy's been he's been I appreciate you he's been talking all the time you good I was getting I was getting tired for him I was going to be patient about it congratulations and welcome home coach yes sir first off Tony Reese WTVM newsletter nine out of Columbus, Georgia the ABC affiliate first off coach when you first got the recognition that you were going to be named the head coach you received a lot of praise from several players across the league just kind of what did that mean to you as well and in year one just kind of your vision some of your goals what you hope to implement you know it's always cool experience when you get praise from players you've coached players you've been around players you've that have retired and moved on and done different things and players that are that are now coaching and doing some of those things that is like the coolest thing in the world because it just shows the impact that you wanted to have in their lives and how you've had it and I don't even know how you feel at those moments because it's it's so surreal that it just makes you just know what you've what you've accomplished this far and how special that is to you and to them that it's just fun I don't know how to just put it it's just fun right and you know as a coach you always talk to annoy the noise right and that's got to be part of the noise as well but it is cool to get some acknowledgement from people that you work with and coached and be able to do those things because that's a cool thing what you hope to implement you know you don't make prediction in this business it's too hard but like I said before every single year you're competing for a championship you know and the clear cut goal for us is obviously to win the south and if you can win the south you can qualify to get into the playoffs and if you can get to the playoffs anything can happen so you want to go out there and try to get yourself into those that mindset because like Terry mentioned it is definitely a mentality for us every reality and that's got to be the focus of all of us and the last thing with that is why not us why not Taneetra on your left yes coach Raheem Morris congratulations thank you welcome back appreciate having you back here and Terry how are you so it's actually a two-part question the first question is for both of you guys and the second question is for coach Ross so you know we talk a lot about numbers but outside of a number of wins north of seven that's the obvious or a trip to the post season or something quantitative coach for you what would define success in your first season as a head coach here same for you Terry what would you see as success for coach Ron in the first season again not quantitative qualitative you're going with Rahe because it's been a it's been a discussion at my house my kids say go heen call him heen you know that's what Instagram it's heen I felt like I might have gotten too comfortable because then I'm gonna call him heen so if I put coach and Raheem together I feel like I'm giving him these properties you going first no you can go first what was the question again okay T ask me again so ask me a question again okay what is your definition of success for coach Raheem outside of the quantitative we all know what that should look like north of seven wins at a minimum but what would be the qualitative where you say hey mission accomplished this has been a successful year one I think we always have to focus more on the process as opposed to focusing on the result let's focus on the process because we know if we focus on that then we'll get we'll reach our goals and we'll reach that so right now we've been focusing on the staff looking at every area and the things that we need to adjust and we'll get into looking at free agency looking at the draft and we won't close any doors whether we're talking about trades that we won't close any doors and and we'll formulate our offseason plan and we'll make sure we get this team prepared for the season so I wouldn't get into the the results at all right now we just focus on the process along the same lines is when you guys come to the games along with the fans I want you to be sitting in your seats and say that team executed they had great fundamentals that team controlled the ball and man did they play with a physicality like if you get those four things done which is part of our pillars of success you got a chance to win whatever amount of number games that you mentioned whatever your goals are whatever your quantitative number is but if you can do those things every single week like Terry just mentioned you will feel really comfortable with the results because of the process that you put yourself through and that kind of leads into my next question Coach Rahm you know some fans just to be honest you know like Stakes said earlier they're still kind of triggered on what happened seven years ago and kind of wonder a lot of fans have said they feel like it's kind of a throwback to that regime and so what would you say to those fans where you want to let them know hey not that I didn't learn anything from when I was here before under the Quinn regime but I'm I'm coach Raheem and this is who I am and this is my philosophy what would you say to them you know I really think I had the opportunity to do that in an interim basis a couple years ago and change the dynamic on what things look like right got a lot of like-minded philosophies with coach Quinn got a lot of like-minded things that you do like about it right but there's some subtle differences in all of us as people and as humans and how we want to move forward and I think it's less about telling people on what's going to be different it's more about showing people what's going to be different right and I think I don't have to do it myself is the beautiful part about it right it's the collaborative effort with Terry with Greg with Arthur Blank with everybody just involved and like I think that's the mindset and that's the more mindset you will continue to get better and better every single day and that's just where we are with that go back right how you doing coach congratulations welcome home Jack Patterson with WRBL News 3 in Columbus two-part question for you first things first it's been since the 2017 season since the Falcons have had a winning season what do you do to write the ship here and bring back a culture that Falcons have come close but they haven't been able to get over the hump so to say and then secondly what have you seen from the current roster that you like and what have you seen that you want to make changes to you know when you're talking about getting back to that mindset of what you need to do to get over the hump right it starts right here starts right here you know getting with Terry coming up with this plan bringing in the coaches that we need to get in place collaborating the coaches with our scouts seeing who else we can add to this roster that he's already started to build done such a great job of doing being a part of that decision-making with him with me us collaborating together I mean you can't do that enough right our thing has to be based on our communication skills and how we move daily throughout our lives that's the number one thing that's got to happen to getting back to that moment to getting back to those playoff type moments that we talked about with all the people across the board and the second part of that question you got away from me really fast what did you say in that second part that's really easy Drake London Bijan Robinson I mean this man has acquired some really good pieces and tools right and the things you got to change is just the obvious holes that we'll talk about right every team every year is going to have some differences every team every year is going to have some change every team is going to be different and we just got to keep building on those moments when they change when they don't happen when they do happen yada yada yada it's exciting we're actually our right now our scouts just got in town and we're starting our February meetings we're actually doing them out here because of all the construction but they'll be rolling for the next 10 days going through their process as soon as the coaches get in then we'll get together with the coaches and we'll spend a lot of time with them not only working on our roster but talking about the specific profiles at the position and so we all know that what we're going out and looking for what we're hunting for and making sure we're all speaking the same language that's going to be a really detailed process going through that and then again we go and attack it and we're going to identify those areas these are the musts these are the areas where we have to add to these specific positions these are the needs we'll formulate that plan and figure out a way to go get it done but it all starts with like Raheem said that that communication that collaboration between us between the coaching staff and then we'll move forward as a team all right we've got time for one more we'll end with Michael Rossing yeah I actually have a question for Terry and Greg and then a question for Raheem going back to the search so basically you have questions for him yes this Michael guy he's got a real pull he's got two questions I do what I can notice that Raheem you'll notice I'll do it again for Greg and for Terry going back to the search in terms of Bill Belichick how serious of a candidate was he and you guys met with him twice early on in the process there are a bunch of reports of breakdowns over maybe how much power he wanted I guess where did that kind of maybe fall apart and in terms of the level of seriousness when you guys looked at him yeah I can start on that Michael you know all of our candidates first of all was serious we interviewed 14 three in person so we had three very experienced veteran coaches that the league allowed us to meet in person and you know we preferred meeting in person versus virtually if we could anyone that was under contract to an NFL club we couldn't meet in person until the 22nd so we had a lot of time before that where we met with Coach Belichick Coach Harbaugh Coach Varebel who all obviously have a great track record and were excellent interviews I think the thing that we came away with have talked about a number of times afterwards is just the number of fantastic candidates that were out there and I think Terry mentioned earlier several of them have already gotten head jobs through this through this cycle so probably half the guys that were on a list you know are out there you know got the got the jobs that were open and so Coach Belichick was very obviously very serious candidate for us can't have anything but the ultimate respect for what he's done in his career at the end of the day is just what's the best fit for us in the current situation where we are the current time that we are and our our group was was unanimous to Arthur and our recommendation that that was for him No nothing to add it was like we it was an excellent process and you learn a lot when you're going through that process and we're talking to some of the brightest minds in the game whether it was the coaches that have had success already or coaches that we know are going to have future success so it was an excellent process it was very thorough you appreciate those times because you learn a lot about the league you learn a lot about your team and it's important to go into it with an open mind and with humility so you can actually listen and learn and so I appreciated all those I know we appreciated all those interviews and appreciated the time and we're thankful for it and we're excited about the result and Raheem you had talked about your coordinators and and one thing that is noticeable of correct is neither one of them is called plays on the NFL level before are was that a concern when you were hiring the coordinators and also are you going to be calling the defensive plays or is Jimmy going to do that you know it wasn't a concern because of the knowledge and the the knowledge base from the coordinators that we've gotten here both and I got full confidence in both of those guys having the ability to do it I've been around Zach Robinson in certain situation we've been able to call it actually in NFL games whether it be pre-sins or not but it's more about the confidence the flow how you get it out there the the ability to do those things and then obviously Jimmy's called it for a long time in the college game and I don't see a lot of confidence in struggle issues that he'll have calling at this next level so I'm really confident in both of those guys having the ability to do that myself personally I want Jimmy Lake to get out there and be able to be in front right calling the plays and me be able to be on both sides of the ball so I can really be involved in how we handle situations how we go about our game management and all those type of things just so you can be the entirety of the head coach and you control the football team the way you want to control it so got some real thoughts in that got some real thoughts behind that I can get into depth and how I feel about those things with you but really got a lot of confidence in those two men calling the game right and there's other ways to train people within practice and how you go about your business when you do live periods and stuff just like that when you compete so I you know we'll get we'll get plenty of time to do those things and that's all the part getting better there was a time that I didn't call it play you know and I was able to go out there and do those things just based on how you train and how you develop and how you grow and that's some of the cool experiences that you have when you do this thing when you talk about the people that you want to bring in all right appreciate guys thank you all for coming out we're going to wrap up with a quick photo off with all all three down in front