ATLANTA — The Atlanta Falcons have reached agreement to hire San Francisco defensive coordinator Jim Mora as the team's head coach, a source said Thursday night.
The Falcons will make an announcement today, said a source close to the negotiations.
Mora, the son of former New Orleans and Indianapolis coach Jim Mora, was a finalist for the San Francisco job last year before the 49ers hired Dennis Erickson.
Mora met with Falcons owner Arthur Blank in his Buckhead office Wednesday for the first time. He interviewed the previous week in Atlanta with Falcons general manager Rich McKay but had not yet met Blank.
The hiring was first announced by SI.com.
Dan Reeves was fired Dec. 9 as the Falcons' coach, and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips took over on an interim basis. Atlanta finished 5-11, but Phillips went 2-1.
"They called and told me they weren't going to hire me, but they didn't tell me who they were going to hire," Phillips said from his Duluth home. "I'm disappointed, yeah, but it's just time to move on."
Mora, 42, has worked the last five years as the 49ers' defensive coordinator. He spent the 1997 and '98 seasons coaching San Francisco's secondary and held the same job with San Diego in 1986-88.