Jimmy Lake sat in his office at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers headquarters, his heart full of disappointment.

It’s January 2007, and Lake, then the Buccaneers’ assistant defensive backs coach, was days removed from losing out on a promotion to head defensive backs coach.

Lake heard a knock on the door and looked up to an unfamiliar face.

“He comes into my office, shakes my hand,” Lake begins, “and says, ‘Hey, Jimmy. My name is Raheem Morris. I know you wanted this job, but we’re going to do this thing together.’”

That was Lake’s first interaction with Morris, now the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach … and again the boss of Lake, who’s Atlanta’s defensive coordinator.

The sorrow Lake felt before Morris entered the room had dissipated. A strong relationship, which still persists, was created – and is now the root of the Falcons’ new defensive era.

“Right from that point, we were a bond,” Lake said. “He took me under his wing. Showed me all of the ropes of how he and Mike Tomlin ran that room since 2002. The amount of information that I learned from him was just invaluable.

“Really from that point on, we’ve had a strong bond off the field, but also on the field of how he handled that and his wealth of knowledge of defensive football.”

When Morris began assembling the coaching staff for his first season back in Atlanta, he prioritized familiarity, bringing seven assistants with him from the Los Angeles Rams’ staff.

Lake was one of them. Leaving Los Angeles for Atlanta was hardly a decision for Lake, one of Morris’s biggest hirings and a believer in the future of the Falcons’ organization under new leadership.

“Just the human being, he’s one-of-one,” Lake said. “There’s nobody like him. There’s nobody that will ever be like him. The energy that he brings, the vibe that he brings. He’s never had a bad day in his life, but then also the football knowledge.

“It’s incredible. He’s one-of-one.”

Little did he know, but Morris began building his 2024 coaching staff on that early January day, some 17 years before he was hired for another stint in Atlanta.

Priority No. 1 for Morris after accepting the job offer from Falcons owner Arthur Blank was addressing the quarterback position.

But first, he needed an offensive coordinator capable of building a system that prohibited success and maximized the talent of Atlanta’s young playmakers.

Again, Morris went back to who he knew – Zac Robinson, a former professional quarterback who was the Rams’ quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.

But for Morris, recognizing Robinson’s abilities started much earlier.

Morris spent four years – two with the Falcons, two with the now-Washington Commanders – coaching alongside Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and one of the game’s brightest offensive minds.

Similarly, Morris shared coaching staffs in both Atlanta and Washington with lower-level assistants Mike McDaniel and Matt LaFleur, both now NFL head coaches.

During his final few years with the Falcons, Morris was around Dirk Koetter, once the head coach of the Buccaneers, and Steve Sarkisian, who led the University of Texas to the College Football Playoffs this past season.

After departing Atlanta for Los Angeles, Morris was around Rams head coach Sean McVay, another offensive guru, for three years.

Morris saw a young Shanahan develop into a play-caller who’s orchestrated some of the NFL’s top offenses. Morris saw an even younger McVay do the same.

Now, Morris believes Robinson’s next.

“I see Zac Robinson, and I see him in the same light,” Morris said. “I see him growing, developing, bringing his timing and rhythm and his balance to our offense that we can go out here and play. And whatever it looks like, it’s going to be fast.

“Those are the things that really just lit me up and made me ecstatic to have an opportunity to bring a guy like Zac Robinson to be a part of this.”

After hiring Robinson, the Falcons kickstarted their search for filling out the rest of the staff – but they didn’t have to look far.

Atlanta retained several assistants from the previous staff, including a trio of lead offensive position coaches in offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford, running backs coach Michael Pitre and receivers coach T.J. Yates, who’s now transitioning to work with the quarterbacks.