For a lot of players, free agency is an enjoyable moment in a career as you get a chance to be wined and dined by teams trying to throw money in your pocket to get your signature on a contract.
Champagne wishes and caviar dreams weren’t on the docket for Cowboys running back Alfred Morris this offseason, though. Morris hit the open market off a down season in Washington that saw him post career lows across the board while learning that the Redskins didn’t see keeping him as a priority. There weren’t teams lining up to sign him away either.
“The free agency process was very insulting, to just say the least,” Morris said, via ESPN.com. “I didn’t like it one bit. I don’t want to do it again. ... It was a crazy experience and just due to last season and everybody saying my production went down, a lot of people threw shots at me and tried to say, ‘Hey, he just wasn’t good,’”
Morris didn’t look very good in 2015 and that drop in production came at the worst possible time. Even if the reasons for his lack of success go beyond things under his control, it gives teams a reason to lower offers or look elsewhere for backfield help in what was set up as Morris’ biggest bite at the apple.
Morris wound up signing a two-year deal worth up to $5.5 million with the Cowboys, although any incentives will be tougher to reach with Ezekiel Elliott now on board. Morris put a positive bow on the experience, calling the job in Dallas “an opportunity to live my dream” that also gives him the opportunity to return to his old stomping grounds this weekend.