Change is in the air for the Atlanta Falcons, and it’s coming fast and furious. On Sunday night, January 4, 2026, the Falcons’ front office pulled the trigger on a sweeping leadership overhaul, firing both head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot. The move, announced just hours after the team’s Week 18 win over the New Orleans Saints, signals the end of an era marked by high hopes, persistent mediocrity, and a string of bold—sometimes baffling—decisions at the top.
“I have great personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership in these roles moving forward,” owner Arthur Blank said in a statement. “The decision to move away from people who represent the organization so well and have a shared commitment to the values that are important to the organization is not an easy one, but the results on the field have not met our expectations or those of our fans and leadership. I wish Raheem and Terry the absolute best in their future pursuits.”
For many Falcons fans, the news is a mixture of relief and uncertainty. After all, the franchise’s eighth consecutive losing season—another 8-9 finish under Morris—made it clear that the current regime was running out of answers. Despite a promising start to the 2025 campaign, the team stumbled badly, losing five straight games after opening 3-2 and failing to capitalize on a late-season rally. Even a four-game winning streak to close the year wasn’t enough to save Morris and Fontenot from the axe.
Raheem Morris exits Atlanta with a 16-18 record over his two-year tenure as head coach. Hopes were high when Morris, a defensive-minded leader with previous head coaching experience in Tampa Bay, was brought in to turn things around. But the Falcons remained stuck in the mud, unable to break through to the postseason. In fact, Atlanta hasn’t seen playoff football since 2017, a drought that’s now stretched to eight painful years.
Quarterback drama was a defining feature of the Fontenot-Morris era. In 2024, the Falcons made headlines by signing veteran Kirk Cousins to a blockbuster $180 million deal—then, just weeks later, stunned the football world by selecting Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick in the NFL Draft. The move left analysts scratching their heads and fans debating the team’s direction. As it turned out, neither solution provided the breakthrough Atlanta desperately needed.
Penix, the 2025 first-round pick, was handed the reins as the full-time starter this season. He flashed moments of promise but struggled with consistency, posting a modest 60.1% completion rate and averaging just over one touchdown per start. The rookie’s campaign was cut short by a knee injury in Week 11, landing him on injured reserve and forcing the Falcons to turn back to Cousins. The veteran, still recovering from a torn Achilles suffered in 2024, managed to steady the ship enough to fuel the team’s late surge, but questions about his long-term viability remain. Cousins is under contract for two more years, but Atlanta holds a potential out—setting the stage for more offseason intrigue.
Defensively, the Falcons tried to shore up their weaknesses, using their first four picks in the 2025 NFL Draft on that side of the ball. The result? Only minor improvement. After ranking 23rd in points allowed in 2024, Atlanta’s defense failed to make the leap that fans hoped for, despite the arrival of highly-touted rookie James Pearce Jr. and other young contributors. The inability to close out games and generate consistent stops was a recurring theme throughout the season, and ultimately proved costly.
In the front office, Terry Fontenot’s five-year run as general manager is a study in near-misses and what-ifs. Fontenot compiled a 36-48 record and failed to deliver a single playoff appearance. He presided over the trade that sent franchise quarterback Matt Ryan packing, chased after Deshaun Watson (who ultimately landed in Cleveland amid legal controversy), and made the high-risk, high-reward move to sign Cousins and draft Penix in quick succession. For a front office that prided itself on boldness, the results simply didn’t add up.
Fontenot’s draft classes produced some promising talent—Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and the aforementioned Pearce—but the team’s inability to solve the quarterback puzzle overshadowed those successes. The Falcons’ roster, on paper, looks playoff-worthy, but the on-field product never quite matched the sum of its parts. As one league source put it, “Until a general manager gets the quarterback situation figured out, it’s going to be hard for any coach to win in Atlanta.”
Now, the Falcons face a daunting offseason. With both the head coach and GM positions vacant, Blank and his leadership team must chart a new course. The search for a new regime will be complicated by the fact that Atlanta does not own a first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, having traded it away in the deal to acquire James Pearce Jr. That’s a tough pill to swallow for a franchise that desperately needs to reboot at the most important position in sports.
The new head coach will inherit a roster with talent—Robinson, London, Pearce, and a handful of young defenders—but also a massive question mark under center. Will the team stick with Cousins, bet on Penix’s recovery, or look for another solution entirely? Without a first-round draft pick, the options are limited, and any decision will shape the future of the franchise for years to come.
As for Morris and Fontenot, their next chapters remain to be written. Morris, with his defensive pedigree, could land on his feet as a coordinator somewhere in the league. Fontenot, despite the lack of playoff success, is respected for his eye for talent and could resurface in a personnel role elsewhere. But for now, both men are closing the book on a tumultuous chapter in Atlanta football history.
For Falcons fans, the hope is that this reset finally brings the change they’ve been waiting for. After eight years of frustration, the pressure is on Arthur Blank and the next leadership team to deliver results. The search begins now, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. With the NFL offseason just getting started, all eyes are on Atlanta as the franchise looks to turn the page and, at long last, fly higher.
