The San Francisco 49ers are hiring Raheem Morris as defensive coordinator, league sources told The Athletic on Sunday, replacing Robert Saleh, who became the Tennessee Titans’ head coach earlier this month.
Morris will be the Niners’ fifth defensive coordinator in as many seasons. DeMeco Ryans left after 2022 for the Houston Texans’ head-coaching job, and the Niners fired Steve Wilks after the 2023 season and Nick Sorensen after 2024, leading to Saleh’s hiring. Under Saleh, San Francisco finished the 2025 season 20th in total defense and 13th in scoring defense while battling several injuries, including to stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner.
Morris, 49, was fired on Jan. 4 after two years as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Before that, he spent three years as defensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams and won a Super Bowl ring.
“He’s such a special leader, such a special coach,” Rams coach Sean McVay told reporters in 2022. “He just has great ability to lead, teach, motivate, inspire. He checks every single one of those boxes.”
The Falcons were 16-18 in Morris’ two seasons, though players lobbied for his return after they won four consecutive games to end the 2025 season. He also spent three years as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ head coach from 2009 to 2011, going 17-31, and was the Falcons’ interim head coach after Dan Quinn was fired during the 2020 season, going 4-7.
Shanahan and Morris first worked together on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ staff in 2004, and then again in Washington from 2012 to ’13 and with the Falcons from 2015 to ’16. They are extremely close. In 2005, Shanahan was arrested one late night at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, as he came to the defense of Morris, who police had put in a chokehold after a case of what they later said was mistaken identity.
New Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel was there and told Michael Silver in his book, “The Why Is Everything,” that Shanahan had acted out of shock. Shanahan was charged with misdemeanor intoxication.