I am an Alfred Morris fan. He made us look good back in 2012. He was just a sixth-round pick, but he worked his way up the depth chart in August. I remember a home game with the Colts, when they trotted him out with the first-unit offense and he really nailed down the starting job. We jacked him way up on our board, all of our subscribers drafted him, and he delivered big time, running for 1,613 yards and 13 TDs.
Morris is the poster child for having some conviction in what you believe. When a guy wins you over in the preseason and you decide you want him on your team, you don’t look at the ADP, see him at 35th among running backs, and decide you’ll rank him 29th. You go ahead and crank him all the way up to 11th or whatever.
Thank you, Alfred Morris. We’ve been doing this for 32 years, and you’re right up there near the top of my personal favorites.
But also, sadly, time marches on. And I don’t think Morris has any good ball left in him.
This guy was pretty awesome back in 2012 and 2013, but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Things started to sour for Morris in 2014, when he barely went over 1,000 yards, and he hasn’t really made much of an impact the last three years.
MORRIS RECAP
2015 Morris doesn’t seem to fit as well in Jay Gruden offense. Washington spends third-round pick on Matt Jones and goes to more of a committee backfield. Morris averages only 3.7 yards per carry, almost a yard less than in his first two seasons.
2016 Washington has no interest in re-signing Morris (opting instead to promote Matt Jones to the starting lineup, a move that fails miserably). Morris draws little interest in free agency before signing modest contract with Cowboys – two years for $3.5 million. A month later Dallas drafts Ezekiel Elliott, and Morris spends most of the year parked on the bench.
2017 Morris serves as backup for Cowboys and gets to start six games when league suspends Elliott. Has modest success in those games, with the team also working in unheralded Rod Smith. In Thursday night win over Washington, Morris punches out 127 yards and a touchdown (probably the last 100-yard game of his career).
Which brings us to this year. Morris hit free agency again, and nobody had much interest in signing him (opting instead for backs like Dion Lewis, Jerick McKinnon, Carlos Hyde and Isaiah Crowell). Morris is 29, he’s really slow, and he’s a liability as a pass catcher. That makes him a poor fit with Kyle Shanahan, given the way he likes to get the running backs involved in catching dumpoff passes.
There is some opportunity in San Francisco, of course. McKinnon hasn’t shown he can do it (and I’m not sure he can). Matt Breida had some success last year, but he weighs only 190 pounds and is also poor in the passing game. Breida has a separated shoulder that should sideline him until September. They drafted Joe Williams last year, but he hasn’t been able to get his career off the ground. I thought their other back, Raheem Mostert, looked better than Williams last week.
None of those four backs, by the way, weighs more than 205 pounds. Morris at least has some experience banging between the tackles.
But I don’t see enough here that I would be willing to offer Morris a roster spot. That is, if I’m in a 12-team league with 20-man rosters, I would think there will be other running backs who aren’t even chosen that I would prefer over Morris. Kyle Shanahan has worked with Morris before – knows all about him – and you’ve got to figure that if he thought he would thrive in this offense, they would have signed him long ago.
Over the last three years, 29 running backs have started at least 20 games. Morris has averaged the worst per-game production of all of those players. He’s averaged 54 rushing and 4 receiving yards in his last 22 games, with just 2 TDs. That works out to just 6.3 points per game in standard scoring.
| RUNNING BACKS, AVERAGE PRODUCTION (2015-17) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | Run | Rec | Total | TD | Pts |
| David Johnson | 22 | 77 | 53 | 130 | 1.14 | 19.9 |
| Ezekiel Elliott | 25 | 105 | 25 | 130 | 1.00 | 19.0 |
| LeVeon Bell | 33 | 94 | 43 | 137 | .70 | 17.9 |
| Todd Gurley | 43 | 76 | 30 | 107 | .81 | 15.5 |
| Devonta Freeman | 43 | 69 | 30 | 99 | .79 | 14.6 |
| LeSean McCoy | 43 | 77 | 25 | 102 | .63 | 14.1 |
| Mark Ingram | 43 | 65 | 26 | 91 | .60 | 12.8 |
| Jordan Howard | 29 | 82 | 13 | 94 | .55 | 12.7 |
| Matt Forte | 26 | 65 | 25 | 90 | .58 | 12.5 |
| Melvin Gordon | 42 | 65 | 26 | 91 | .57 | 12.5 |
| DeMarco Murray | 31 | 63 | 21 | 84 | .61 | 12.2 |
| Adrian Peterson | 25 | 80 | 12 | 92 | .44 | 11.8 |
| Carlos Hyde | 36 | 67 | 16 | 82 | .56 | 11.6 |
| Jay Ajayi | 20 | 85 | 9 | 94 | .35 | 11.5 |
| Latavius Murray | 42 | 63 | 14 | 77 | .62 | 11.5 |
| Jonathan Stewart | 26 | 70 | 6 | 76 | .62 | 11.3 |
| Lamar Miller | 46 | 62 | 20 | 81 | .48 | 11.0 |
| Doug Martin | 33 | 67 | 15 | 82 | .39 | 10.6 |
| Tevin Coleman | 26 | 39 | 27 | 66 | .62 | 10.3 |
| C.J. Anderson | 23 | 63 | 15 | 78 | .39 | 10.2 |
| Jeremy Hill | 31 | 53 | 8 | 61 | .68 | 10.2 |
| Marshawn Lynch | 21 | 62 | 11 | 72 | .48 | 10.2 |
| Frank Gore | 48 | 62 | 16 | 78 | .40 | 10.2 |
| LeGarrette Blount | 44 | 60 | 3 | 63 | .64 | 10.1 |
| Chris Ivory | 28 | 57 | 16 | 72 | .43 | 9.8 |
| Ryan Mathews | 26 | 46 | 10 | 56 | .62 | 9.5 |
| Isaiah Crowell | 32 | 52 | 16 | 67 | .38 | 9.0 |
| Rashad Jennings | 28 | 50 | 18 | 68 | .25 | 8.3 |
| T.J. Yeldon | 27 | 45 | 22 | 67 | .19 | 7.8 |
| Duke Johnson | 45 | 23 | 38 | 61 | .22 | 7.4 |
| Derrick Henry | 30 | 39 | 7 | 46 | .33 | 6.6 |
| Alfred Morris | 22 | 54 | 4 | 58 | .09 | 6.3 |
—Ian Allan