‘Amazing being able to represent my city’: Why Falcons traded for Wanya Morris

FLOWERY BRANCH — Wanya Morris still has the jersey hanging in his closet.

Falcons. No. 7. Michael Vick.

The Falcons drafted Vick six months after Morris was born some 35 miles northeast of Atlanta in Grayson, and as Morris grew up, Vick earned three trips to the Pro Bowl — enough to hook him on Falcons fandom for the rest of his adolescent life.

Morris remembers watching Michael Turner run through opposing defenses and Roddy White and Harry Douglas catch passes from Matt Ryan. He remembers Vic Beasley’s dominant 2016 season and Jake Matthews’ ascent from 2014 first-round pick to, now, the NFL’s ultimate ironman.

All of it — the jerseys, the memories, the fandom — made Morris’ bright smile illuminate ever more as he stood on the grass inside the Falcons’ facility in Flowery Branch, moments removed from his second practice as the team’s newest offensive tackle.

“It’s still a surreal feeling,” Morris told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. “I think when I finally get settled and move all my things here to Atlanta, it’ll finally settle in that I’m back home.

“It’s crazy — you grow up watching the Falcons and then end up playing for them. It’s kind of cool.”

The Falcons traded a 2027 sixth-round pick to acquire Morris and a 2027 seventh-round pick from the Chiefs. The teams officially announced the move Tuesday morning, and Morris made his practice debut that afternoon.

The move itself, and the chance to return home, set off Morris’ emotions, but he’s already had a few pinch-me moments in his first week in Flowery Branch, too.

Morris met Ryan, now the Falcons’ president of football, Tuesday.

“It was like, ‘Wow, you don’t even know I idolized you as a kid,’” Morris said. “It was crazy.”

Another occurred when he met his fellow Falcons offensive linemen and introduced himself to Matthews, who has started 195 consecutive games at left tackle, the longest streak in the league.

“I watched Jake Matthews out of Texas A&M,” said Morris, who was 13 when the Falcons drafted Matthews. “So, getting advice from him firsthand is insane, too. I can’t explain it.”

Now, Morris hopes to join Matthews on the Falcons’ first-team offensive line this fall.

Morris started his college career at Tennessee, where he spent two years before transferring to Oklahoma. The Chiefs selected Morris at No. 92 overall in the third round in 2023, and he started 16 games across 43 appearances in three seasons with the team.

After starting 11 games in the middle of the 2024 season, Morris spent much of 2025 as a reserve. He played in 12 games, starting one, and was part of a cluster of offensive tackles fighting for roster spots this summer in Kansas City.

So, Morris and his representatives worked with the Chiefs to facilitate a trade.

“It was just more of a playing time thing,” Morris said. “I love KC. It was the place that drafted me, gave me my first opportunity. So, it’ll always be love for that program.”

The Falcons jumped at the chance to add the 6-foot-6, 307-pound Morris. General manager Ian Cunningham has emphasized raising the floor on the team’s roster, and the line of scrimmage is at the forefront of their plan.

Falcons assistant general manager Jeff Scott, who spoke to reporters for the first time Wednesday, remembers a year early in his career with the Commanders when the team had over 15 different offensive lineups because of injuries.

Morris, if nothing else, bolsters the depth to an offensive line that won’t have veteran swing tackle Storm Norton for the second consecutive season.

“When you have opportunities to improve the roster, you’re always going to take those, especially up front,” Scott said. “We believe in building it up front and we’re going to take a number of different swings and continue to try to build.

“(The injury bug) is a natural part of our game and you have to be prepared, and that’s what building that depth and building the bottom of the room is about.”

Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said the team is “excited to get our hands on” Morris, who will learn from offensive line coach and renowned player developer Bill Callahan.

“Wired the right way,” Stefanski said Tuesday about Morris. “We’ll get him with coach Callahan and just get to work.”

Morris participated in the Chiefs’ minicamp last week, prompting a quick turnaround and forcing him to learn on the fly at the Falcons’ practices Tuesday and Wednesday. He described it as “definitely hectic,” but his mindset is rooted in proving the Falcons right.

It’s a fresh start and new beginning, and Morris, entering a contract year, is eager to show he’s moved past an up-and-down tenure in Kansas City.

“Just show I’m the person I know I could be, show I’m the player I know I can be,” Morris said about his mentality. “Just locking in on the details and just becoming a better technician — a better person at my job, really.”

Morris reflected briefly on his time with the Chiefs. There were “really tough games,” he conceded, but also a few bright spots. He wants to learn from both, and he feels he already has.

No longer a wide-eyed rookie, Morris has gained an appreciation for the monotonous. The small details that bore others ultimately make the biggest difference, a fact he’s steadily grown to understand more since entering the league in 2023.

“The game is 90% mental now,” Morris said. “Just knowing the mentality and the sacrifice it takes to be great and just learning you have to sacrifice more each year.”

Morris arrives in Flowery Branch believing he can win a starting job. Kaleb McGary, the Falcons’ staple right tackle since 2019, retired in April, creating a vacancy to protect the blindside for lefty quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa.

The Falcons are expected to start Jawaan Taylor, who Morris teamed with the past three years in Kansas City. But Taylor hasn’t practiced this summer because of an undisclosed injury, promoting third-year pro Michael Jerrell to the first-team offensive line.

Stefanski said the team will “continue to explore all sorts of options” at right tackle, and Morris plans to capitalize on any crack of daylight that comment provides.