Raheem Morris coached the Atlanta Falcons for two seasons. On Sunday he comes back to Mercedes-Benz Stadium as the defensive coordinator of the 6-0 San Francisco 49ers, and Kevin Stefanski, the man who replaced him, does not think Morris’ knowledge of the roster will matter much. “I think a lot of that, and I’ve mentioned this before, is overblown,” the Falcons head coach said on Wednesday.
“Of course Raheem has great insight into our personnel. And our coaches have great insight into Raheem, and he knows that,” Stefanski said. “I think you can get into, well, he knows that we know that they know, and I don’t think it’s as useful as it may seem.” He added that the staff still does its homework: “Anytime we’re playing against a coach or a player that someone has knowledge on, you sit and you talk to your players and you talk to your coaches and you try to get as much insight on people as possible. But I think it’s a little bit overblown in terms of how useful some of that information can be.”
The Falcons are 2-4 and have lost two in a row, most recently 31-23 at home to the Chicago Bears. Kickoff against the 49ers is Sunday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m. ET (20:00 Cairo).
Terrell back on the field
Stefanski opened with the injury news. Cornerback A.J. Terrell Jr., who has been on injured reserve since hurting his groin in Week 2, practiced on Wednesday, which opens his 21-day window to return. Stefanski would not say whether he will play on Sunday. “I want to see how he does,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair yet to say on any of these players as they come back and just start practicing. So we’ll see how he does.” He described Terrell as “doing a lot better” and “a great player for this football team.” Asked about cornerback C.J. Henderson, who missed the Bears game with a groin injury, he said it was “really hard to say until you get through Wednesday to see where this is trending.”
Linebacker Kendal Daniels, the defense’s green-dot play caller, was taken to hospital with a neck injury against Chicago and released the same day. Linebacker Divine Deablo hurt his arm in the same game. Asked about the two, Stefanski said one was “doing better” and that he would wait to see “what the next couple days are going to look like.” Andy Dalton, signed on Monday as quarterback depth, will be inactive this week. “He’s working very hard in the classroom, catching him up on the walkthrough, so we’ll ramp him up,” Stefanski said.
“The sense is we need to win”
Michael Penix Jr. was sacked several times by the Bears, and Stefanski was asked about the blitz pickup. “When it comes to protection, it very simply can be technique. It very simply can be the protections that we’re calling. It goes without saying, staying out of those downs and distances,” he said. “It’s a simple thing to say, hey, we want to be better, but it’s complicated in how you want to achieve that.” He put it on the coaches. “It’s our job as coaches, and I put this on me, to make sure we give our guys a good plan, and then we got to go execute it.” Protecting the quarterback, he said, also means “how guys get open, how we get the ball out of our hands, how we run the ball.”
Asked whether the 2-4 start means Penix’s growth has to be sped up, Stefanski said no. “There’s not. Not for me, not from anybody in this organization,” he said. “The sense is we need to win as a football team. We need to play better in all aspects. We need to coach better in all aspects. That’s the sense you get when you walk into this building.” He said the team keeps “blinders on week to week. I could tell you everything you want to know about the 49ers. But outside of that, I’m probably not the person to talk about it.”
Bijan Robinson ran well against Chicago but did little as a receiver, and Stefanski was asked whether he treats the two differently. “If you run a screen, it’s different than if you run a draw. A draw, you’re guaranteeing it’s going in the belly of the ball carrier,” he said. “Bijan’s a great player that affects the game in the run and the pass, so we’ll always look for ways to utilize him as such.” About the Bears loss, he said: “We certainly did not get into our offense enough. Run, pass, doesn’t matter. We didn’t play well, we didn’t coach well.”
Purdy and McCaffrey
Stefanski spoke highly of the 49ers quarterback. “He’s an elite processor. You see how quickly he gets through his progressions. He has elite accuracy. And I think he’s an elite scrambler,” he said of Brock Purdy. “I think he’s the best or one of the best off-schedule quarterbacks playing right now. He’s a smart scrambler. He’s looking to pass. And then when he runs, he can score from 50 yards out, as he’s done. Very, very smart, hard to get on the ground.”
He compared Christian McCaffrey with Robinson, whom his defense sees in practice every day. “They’re both so special, and they’re different in their own right,” Stefanski said. “He’s running A-gap power schemes. He’s on the perimeter running the ball. He’s running choice routes out of the backfield. He can line up at wide receiver and run some high-level routes that are, quote unquote, receiver routes. So there’s really no shortage of what he can do.” Both backs, he said, are “in a very, very elite class.”
Shanahan on Morris and Robinson
In Santa Clara, Kyle Shanahan was asked whether his players want to win this one for Morris. “I don’t think they can be more motivated, and I think our guys are as motivated as you can get each week,” the 49ers head coach said. “I know they care about Raheem a lot and definitely would want to do that for him, but I don’t think we’re looking at too much of a personal game like that.”
Shanahan called Robinson “as good as advertised” in the pass game and the run game. “He doesn’t have any weakness. Huge challenge for our linebackers, huge challenge for our whole defense and also a huge challenge for the whole team,” he said. The 49ers held a walkthrough on Wednesday, two days after their 23-17 Monday night win over Washington.
Shanahan also talked about Purdy’s scrambling. “It’s so nice for Brock to have that tool. He uses it at the right time almost all the time,” he said. “Being able to pick up yards and keep you out of second-and-longs or third-and-longs is huge.” He explained that when Purdy turns from the huddle to ask for the play again, it usually means the headset cut out: “I need it again. And then it gets cut off at 15,” he said, meaning the 15-second mark when the radio shuts off. “Sometimes no one can hear, and a lot of the quarterbacks do it.”
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