Defensive Coordinator Raheem Morris Press Conference

Defensive Coordinator Raheem Morris

Press Conference – October 8, 2026

San Francisco 49ers

What do you think of DL Sebastian Valdez’s performance in these last two games?

“Pretty good. There’s always things you can correct, always things you can clean up. But you go out and you evaluate those guys, things that you have. You never get too high, never get too low. Let the guys go out there and play. Felt pretty good.”

DL Mykel Williams is clearly excited to get back out there, not activated yet, but what have you seen from him that you like?

“Just the energy. His ability to show that he wants to get out there and play. It’s been almost a year, as he said to multiple people. He’s just excited and I don’t blame him. I’m excited to see him as well. This will be my first time seeing him this week and getting a chance to watch him go out there and play. He’s big, he gives us a lot of energy, gives a lot of juice and we’ll see where he is by the end of this week and see what happens, but I’m excited about it.”

In the past, DB Deommodore Lenoir has campaigned to shadow Seattle Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Has he come up to you and talked about that and what are the considerations that would go into deciding whether that’s the best move for the defense as a whole?

“There’s always things you can do and that’s always something that’s definitely within the system. But, those guys nowadays are a little bit different. Back in the day when you shadowed somebody, you moved, the other people didn’t move. That was back when [former NFL WR] Marvin Harrison played on one side and [former NFL WR] Reggie Wayne played on one side and they just sat there. But as you see in today’s game, there’s a bunch of different things that happen, moving parts. People move, they move inside, they move outside, they move into the backfield, particularly these guys and how they game plan. That’s not always the best thing for the team at times. He will be matched up with him a bunch. He will match up a little bit. They cannot stay away from each other, but we won’t do necessarily the shadow thing where you follow him inside, you follow him outside. There’s things we have to do, how we play our game, that won’t be able to pinpoint that all the time, but there will definitely be moments that they’ll get a chance to get together. I don’t know if that’s a nice answer of saying no, but it’s just one of those things of it’s just not the same as it used to be. Back when you played [reporter] Grant [Cohn], receivers stayed on one side and you were able to lock them down over there.”

Do you think it’s all the routes moving around so much?

“It’s a bunch of different things. You have these corners, whether it be [Denver Broncos CB Patrick] Surtain [II] or whether it was [Pittsburgh Steelers CB] Jalen Ramsey or whether it’s DMo. Those receivers are all over the place. As you see our guys moving around all over the place, there’s not just a stationary X anymore, a stationary Z. It just doesn’t work that way. There’s definitely times you can, there’s definitely got-to-have-it moments you can match those things up. It’s definitely dictated by the call at times like some of those things give things away. These quarterbacks nowadays are too smart to just go out there and determine things and dictate things before the snap. You want to be able to sort it out a little bit as they’re taking the snap, taking their drop, going through their process, if that makes sense.”

What makes him such a unique wide receiver?

“Njigba?”

Yeah.

“I think he’s one of the more talented guys. Aggressive hands. He runs through the catch. He is for sure one of the guys that can find soft spots in any area of a defense, whether it’s man, whether it’s zone, whatever the case may be. He does a nice job of understanding what their schemes are. He’s got one of the all-time greats playing opposite of him that he said publicly that’s helped him improve his game when it comes to the subtlety of the game. I know how [Seattle Seahawks WR] Cooper Kupp’s studying. I know what he’s doing. I know he’s transitioning that through that room and bringing those guys to a different level of understanding of what it means to be a football player, not just a wideout. You can definitely see that come through as he was the, I think he was the Offensive Player of the Year and just really dominant throughout the process. Very close to being the MVP at that position. Those guys having that kind of experience. I was with Cooper when he was a Triple Crown winner and you see a lot of those similarities and you see also a lot of the dominant traits that he had coming out of college that he’s able to translate into a really good player.”

You definitely have some fiery guys on the defensive side of the ball. It’s maybe too much conversation about it, but given the way last season with the Seahawks, coming into this matchup, are you having any conversations with them about not getting too excited about this one and just going out and executing their job?

“Clearly not. Did you see [LB Dre] Greenlaw last week? You let these guys go play. These guys are dogs, man. They go hunt, they go play, they play smart, they play fast. They use the week to go out and process those things and then on Sundays it’s a lot of fun to go out there and call it to those guys and let those guys go out there and perform. They don’t need my motivation. They don’t need my ability to rein them back, unless it’s something that goes across the lines, but these guys have done a nice job keeping it there, keeping it where it needs to be.”

How did Romello Height do with the club? Did he seem to adjust to it as the game went along a little bit?

“He had a couple of really good rushes. Was able to get around there and do some really good things. Obviously it’s hard to get on and off blocks sometimes. He got caught up with that [Denver Broncos OL Quinn Meinerz] 77 for that Denver team, that’s a pretty tough guy, a couple of times in there and got him in a vulnerable position. But, Romello’s a dog and I love the way he competes, the way he plays. He’s going to go out there regardless. He might have two clubs on and go out there. He’s that kind of guy. So, I’m just fired up he was able to compete and go out there and help us get a win.”

What have you seen from his progress from the start?

“It’s always hard because of the significant high when he came in, when we’re not in pads. Then he hit the rookie stage when you get in there, you’re really shocked by him. Then he had a little bit of an injury setback, so he had to go through that process. Then watching him bounce back and go out there and play for us, provide some pressures for us, to be able to go out there and finish I think one deal or two deals whatever it was. He’s getting better and better every single week and that’s a lot of fun to watch. No different than him, [LB Jaden] Dugger, and all those other rookies that we’ve got playing for us.”

Last week when you were asked about limiting explosive plays, you said that’s kind of the way the league is going right now, the direction. Why do you think that is? Not that anyone was ever trying to give up big plays, but why do you think it’s become such a priority?

“A lot of it is really if you’re able to limit those plays, those explosive plays, that keeps the score down. If you’re able to keep the score down, that gives your offense a chance to win every single game. That gives your team the opportunity to go out there and play how it was planned to play throughout the course of the week. We’ve been able to limit the explosions to be able to play the way we want to play, to be able to dictate the terms. Fortunately or unfortunately, now we’ve got to go out there and continue to do those things however that works. We’ve got the guys to be able to do it. They’ve got the mental stamina to be able to survive throughout the practice, to be able to make the mistakes in practice, to be able to correct those things, take it to the grass and make those things come to life. Those are things that are all helping us.”

Is there a balance to be struck there too of obviously if an offense has to execute an 18-play drive, there’s a better chance they’re going to make a mistake at some point in there versus you also don’t want to be on the field for those long drives too.

“There’s a lot of that. There’s calculated risk at everything we do. There’s a calculated risk every time you pressure a person, every time you sit back and cover. All those things come into play. You’ve got to determine those things, how you’re going to play each series, each drive. I don’t think it’d ever be the same. I think it won’t be always understood, but it’d always be something that there’s planned when you go out there.”

With the possibility of Mykel coming back, what type of impact does he have and what would your plan be with him?

“Really hard question for me. I wasn’t around when he was able to play last year. Obviously, I knew him through the draft process and know what type of player he is, so I’m really excited about him being able to come out there and first and foremost do the really important things that we ask our ends to do, set edges. I’m really fired up to see him go out there and have a chance to be able to affect the passer. So those two things that he was brought here to do are the things that I’m most fired up to see and nobody’s more fired up than him, obviously.”

Dre isn’t playing, obviously, every snap. He comes off occasionally. Are you trying to just manage him and get him through 17 games as a nod to his medical history, or is there something else going on?

“It’s hard to say manage when you’re talking about Dre. It’s just really doing whatever it is to win football games. He comes out at times. We’ve had packages where he’s out. We have packages that he’s in. He’s in most of them. He’s not the green dot, so we can be able to switch those guys in and out of rotation. You do it a lot with linemen. People kind of get wigged out when you do it with the defensive back or you do it with a linebacker. But, realistically that’s going to become the norm because people want to play fast. How fast can you play for 50 snaps as opposed to 80? If you go play 89 snaps, you’re not going to get the same Dre we got the next week. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have got what we got last week. To be able to get what we got last week is what we continue to hunt. Whatever the best formula is for that to happen, I think it’s what we’re going to do.”