Raheem Morris shares why choosing the 49ers was ‘an easy choice for me’

When you get a chance to go be a part of teams like that, which I’ve been fortunate enough to do in the past, it certainly made it an easy choice for me. With all due respect to the people that I talked to. Because everybody that I talked to that actually called me, I have so much respect for those people. But, Kyle was a great opportunity to come work here at the 49ers.” Morris has a couple of new toys to play with up front in Romello Height and Gracen Halton. Robert Saleh was not fortunate enough to have these high-end athletes last season. Morris was asked what he saw in both rookie defensive linemen the 49ers drafted: “Obviously, just going off what you guys know from here, you always want to have those pass rushers, right? And Romello brings a certain ability to pass rush that he showed opposite of his young teammate out there at Texas Tech. Romell’s going to come in here and be able to provide some of those things for us, be able to get into that room and really learn from one of the best D-Line coaches in the world in [defensive line coach] Kris Kocurek and [assistant defensive line coach] Greg Scruggs and obviously [defensive quality control coach] Cameron Brown and being able to get with those guys and be able to be the best version of himself.

So, watching Romello as a pass rusher, watching Romello be able to go out there and do some different things, whether it be in the pass game or whether it be even in the run game. You see all the things that we love about the guy, the WIT, the stuff that he does, how he plays the game, and all this stuff. And he plays with high energy, probably one of the highest energy guys in the Draft that we saw, and that I was at least able to evaluate.

So, extremely confident and fired about that and no different with Halton, right? He gives that same type of interior presence. You know, last year you guys went out and added big [DL] C.J [West] and you added big [DL Alfred Collins] A.C. you know, big time run stoppers, big time guys that can just get off the ball, disrupt and do a bunch of different things and you go out there and keep adding guys in those positions so you can get that constant roll, and to be able to get those guys to roll through that, cause absolute disruption for everybody that we play against is something that you love.” The addition of Osa Odighizuwa takes immense pressure off Collins, West, and Halton. If the former two provide any sort of pass rush, that’s a bonus with what Odighizuwa has provided during his career. Ultimately, Morris spoke about his relationship with Shanahan and Shanahan’s “obsession” with football. “The ultimate thing with coaches that really are committed to each other is obsession. He has an obsession about football that’s just unmatched. And when you have that obsessive personality to be the very best at what you do, I think that’s something that ultimately clicks when you’re talking about coaches.

Like there’s going to be coaches in everybody’s office, there’s going to be cross training and it’s already started to happen with [quarterbacks coach] Mick Lombardi on the offensive staff, myself, my own personal staff, being able to get with [assistant head coach defense] Matt Eberflus, being able to get with [defensive passing game coordinator] Jerry Gray.

Some of the guys that were here, like Kris Kocurek, being able to go to their side of the ball with some of the young guys that are just eager to be the very best to be able to learn and keep growing. It’s just an obsession of football that makes you click.” Saleh was a man of few words. That does not appear to be the case with Morris.