The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

If you heard Gruden's comments yesterday, it definitely sounded like they would still be interested in bringing Morris back next year:

"“I’m not going to say he’s a longshot,” Gruden said. “There’s not one negative thing I can say about Alfred Morris as a person and as a player. When you talk about running backs the most important things you talk about are ball security and durability. He’s been durable and he’s protected the football. He’s been very productive. And those are three things that are hard to say about any running back for the amount of time he’s played the position. We wish him well if we don’t get him done, but if we do get him done we’ll welcome him back with open arms.”"

Here's what Tandler wrote about it this morning:

They will be paying close attention to running backs in Indianapolis but the need may not be a great when the draft rolls around as it seems to be now. McCloughan previously left the door for a return of Alfred Morris open a crack; Jay Gruden pushed it open a little bit more yesterday. “There’s not one negative thing I can say about him as a player and person,” Gruden said. He said that a return is “not a long shot”. I’ll believe it when I see it—I think the Redskins want a more dynamic player as their lead dog—but I get the feeling that if Gruden had his druthers Morris would be back.

Seems like this will be mostly about whether or not another team offers a crazy contract to Alf or not.

I would not want the team to overspend on Morris, but I also wouldn't completely low ball him either.

riggofan wrote:If you heard Gruden's comments yesterday, it definitely sounded like they would still be interested in bringing Morris back next year:

"“I’m not going to say he’s a longshot,” Gruden said. “There’s not one negative thing I can say about Alfred Morris as a person and as a player. When you talk about running backs the most important things you talk about are ball security and durability. He’s been durable and he’s protected the football. He’s been very productive. And those are three things that are hard to say about any running back for the amount of time he’s played the position. We wish him well if we don’t get him done, but if we do get him done we’ll welcome him back with open arms.”"

Here's what Tandler wrote about it this morning:

They will be paying close attention to running backs in Indianapolis but the need may not be a great when the draft rolls around as it seems to be now. McCloughan previously left the door for a return of Alfred Morris open a crack; Jay Gruden pushed it open a little bit more yesterday. “There’s not one negative thing I can say about him as a player and person,” Gruden said. He said that a return is “not a long shot”. I’ll believe it when I see it—I think the Redskins want a more dynamic player as their lead dog—but I get the feeling that if Gruden had his druthers Morris would be back.

Seems like this will be mostly about whether or not another team offers a crazy contract to Alf or not.

I would not want the team to overspend on Morris, but I also wouldn't completely low ball him either.

He averaged 3.7 yards per carry last season. He had one rushing touchdown. ONE. Morris' production has declined drastically every season. They just got $6 million in cap rollover from last season. Go get Matt Forte. Stop telling us Matt Jones can be a primary back. Stop telling us about Alfred Morris' character. It's lipservice and it's B.S.

oh wow. Just threw up in my mouth a little bit there.

Yea I saw that…Unfortunately for Al he plays the wrong positon. I think it would be a no brainier to re-sign him if he got the same production relative to another position. The sad truth is the vet minimum number is almost double what they could get in the draft (depending on the round). Teams are reluctant to give big $$$ on RB with a little wear on them, when they can get the same production from the draft. I can see SM moving in a different direction.

SM will not get in a biding war for Forte...See D. Maurry!

Anyone who trusts anything the Redskins FO or HC says at this time of year is just deluding themselves

at this time of year, I'd trust Dan Snyder more than those guys and I don't trust that sucker at all, ... anytime







btw - who is D. Maurry

DEHog wrote:SM will not get in a biding war for Forte...See D. Maurry!

No, he won't but I keep repeating it because if they're going to waste money on an aging running back for a year or two he's the one to waste it on.

No one actually believe Matt Jones can be a reliable primary back. He averaged 3.6 yards per carry and can't hold onto the football.

The thing is defense is a much bigger need and they only have eight draft picks, so they're going to have to address some areas in free agency.

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:

DEHog wrote:SM will not get in a biding war for Forte ... See D. Murray!

No, he won't but I keep repeating it because if they're going to waste money on an aging running back for a year or two he's the one to waste it on. No one actually believes Matt Jones can be a reliable primary back. He averaged 3.6 yards per carry and can't hold onto the football.

defense is a much bigger need and they only have eight draft picks, so they're going to have to address some areas in free agency.

I agree that we'll need some help from free agents - this FO will 'approach' the free agent market very differently than expected

I just don't get the whole Matt Forte thing to begin with. That's such Vinny/Dan 2005 fantasy football go out and sign the name you know stuff.

If you want to make a case for Lamar Miller or Chris Ivory or something, fine. Forte is a 30 year old RB with eight years of wear and tear on his body who missed three games to injury last year. I guarantee GMSM isn't going that route.

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:No one actually believe Matt Jones can be a reliable primary back. He averaged 3.6 yards per carry and can't hold onto the football.

Yeah and Kirk Cousins can't stop throwing interceptions.

I'd love for you to tell us how well Matt Forte did with fumbling the ball his first two years. Its kind of an interesting stat.

riggofan wrote:I just don't get the whole Matt Forte thing to begin with. That's such Vinny/Dan 2005 fantasy football go out and sign the name you know stuff.

If you want to make a case for Lamar Miller or Chris Ivory or something, fine. Forte is a 30 year old RB with eight years of wear and tear on his body who missed three games to injury last year. I guarantee GMSM isn't going that route.

This..the running will get better with better linemen not better RB's!

DEHog wrote:

riggofan wrote:I just don't get the whole Matt Forte thing to begin with. That's such Vinny/Dan 2005 fantasy football go out and sign the name you know stuff.

If you want to make a case for Lamar Miller or Chris Ivory or something, fine. Forte is a 30 year old RB with eight years of wear and tear on his body who missed three games to injury last year. I guarantee GMSM isn't going that route.

This..the running will get better with better linemen not better RB's!

I'm certainly not suggesting a bidding war. But if this guy were to come cheap and if we anticipate drafting at other positions ...

Having said all that, the chances of him being in B and G next year are probably less than 1/32.

I agree with riggofan on this - this FO is not going to be paying a lot of money for free agents

DEHog wrote:

riggofan wrote:I just don't get the whole Matt Forte thing to begin with. That's such Vinny/Dan 2005 fantasy football go out and sign the name you know stuff.

If you want to make a case for Lamar Miller or Chris Ivory or something, fine. Forte is a 30 year old RB with eight years of wear and tear on his body who missed three games to injury last year. I guarantee GMSM isn't going that route.

This..the running will get better with better linemen not better RB's!

But if you make changes to the offensive line you give up stellar pass blocking for better run blocking. Not a good idea. What we really need is to draft a Barry Sanders type, you know, a back who doesn't actually need blocking.

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:

DEHog wrote:

riggofan wrote:I just don't get the whole Matt Forte thing to begin with. That's such Vinny/Dan 2005 fantasy football go out and sign the name you know stuff.

If you want to make a case for Lamar Miller or Chris Ivory or something, fine. Forte is a 30 year old RB with eight years of wear and tear on his body who missed three games to injury last year. I guarantee GMSM isn't going that route.

This..the running will get better with better linemen not better RB's!

But if you make changes to the offensive line you give up stellar pass blocking for better run blocking. Not a good idea. What we really need is to draft a Barry Sanders type, you know, a back who doesn't actually need blocking.

Or OL-men who can do it all. Plus, when you can run well, pass pro is easier.

DarthMonk wrote:Or OL-men who can do it all. Plus, when you can run well, pass pro is easier.

OK, so who do you toss? Obviously Williams and Scherff aren't going anywhere. Lauvao was actually playing very well before he was injured. Center is an obvious problem but how often do the Skins run through the A gaps by design? They didn't even do that much when they had the Hogs. I suppose you could look for an upgrade at right tackle as well but don't the Skins have more pressing needs? Like the defensive line, linebackers, and secondary. I'm curious to see what McCloughan does here but even if he builds from the lines back that won't make Matt Jones hold onto the football. They're going to need an experienced vet who isn't strictly or primarily a 3rd down back. There's no logical way they go into next season with Jones, Thomas, and Thompson or similar. Again, the Matt Forte thing is a joke but they need someone who can be counted on to hold onto the ball. Nothing Jones has done thus far says he is that player. He's also not going to carry the ball 300+ times like a workhorse back would. He carried the ball 144 times last season. That's at least 100 carries less than they need from a primary back. Probably more like 150 less.

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:

DarthMonk wrote:Or OL-men who can do it all. Plus, when you can run well, pass pro is easier.

OK, so who do you toss? Obviously Williams and Scherff aren't going anywhere. Lauvao was actually playing very well before he was injured.

Oddly enough, Morris and Jones were both running well before Lauvao was injured too. Go figure.

riggofan wrote:

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:

DarthMonk wrote:Or OL-men who can do it all. Plus, when you can run well, pass pro is easier.

OK, so who do you toss? Obviously Williams and Scherff aren't going anywhere. Lauvao was actually playing very well before he was injured.

Oddly enough, Morris and Jones were both running well before Lauvao was injured too. Go figure.

And yet, I just read they may decide to dump both Lauvao and Lichtensteiger for cheaper, younger, healthier bodies. Apparently they'd save somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 million in cap space.

It'll be interesting to see if they draft linemen or running backs. Or both. But it still seems the defense is a much bigger need.

the really good part about all this is that we now have a FO that has a clue about what to do and it's actually going to be really interesting to watch them continue to build this franchise and fix the damage caused by Snyder

the defense needs some help but the key is to make sure that we get younger, bigger + have good depth along both lines

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:And yet, I just read they may decide to dump both Lauvao and Lichtensteiger for cheaper, younger, healthier bodies. Apparently they'd save somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 million in cap space

I'm totally on board with that. I've heard suggestions of moving Spencer Long to C and preparing to start Kouandjio next year. I don't even care about the cap space, I'm just in favor of getting younger and bigger on the line and letting Callahan coach these guys up.

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:It'll be interesting to see if they draft linemen or running backs. Or both. But it still seems the defense is a much bigger need.

Agreed. I don't think there is any doubt that DL is the bigger need. I just don't think it will have any bearing on who we pick in the first round. What we need is to get the most talented impact player we can get at that spot. Regardless of position.

Its supposed to be a good year for defensive linemen. Really good chance that one of those guys might be best available at our pick. Also a good chance that the draft is deep enough we could get a quality guy in the second round.

SkinsJock wrote:the defense needs some help but the key is to make sure that we get younger, bigger + have good depth along both lines

Yes, not just younger and bigger though. Younger, bigger and a legit BALLER.

I'm with you on SM though, man. That guy seems to know what he's doing.

I think that is a very good point - this FO seem to be really looking for guys that are first & foremost 'legit football players' - the focus seems to be to find guys that they can give to the coaching staff & say here's a player that we feel can be a lot better than expected - this FO is not as focused on taking the guy that has proven he can play - they work very hard on finding the guy that they feel has his better stuff in front of him

I'm looking forward to the next few months as I'm sure these guys will continue to surprise us with who they add to the mix here

Whatever happens, 100% class act. I know I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know.

Alfred Morris says thanks with “unknown getting closer”

He also said there were no hard feelings for the Redskins regardless of how things play out, something he repeated in an Instagram post that also addressed the team’s fans.

“Man the last 4 years have flown by. I’ve met a lot of great people, made a lot of great memories, and was given countless opportunities to live my dream and better myself and my family,” Morris wrote. “With the unknown getting closer I just wanted to take a second and thank the entire Redskins organization for an amazing four years. From Mr. Dan Snyder to Mrs. B.J Blanchard who works the front desk and always greets everyone with a smile. No matter what happens I will always be apart of #RedskinsNation and a special thanks to all the fans and their abundance of love, support, and loyalty y’all make this game what [it] is.”

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riggofan wrote:Whatever happens, 100% class act. I know I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know.

Alfred Morris says thanks with “unknown getting closer”

He also said there were no hard feelings for the Redskins regardless of how things play out, something he repeated in an Instagram post that also addressed the team’s fans.

“Man the last 4 years have flown by. I’ve met a lot of great people, made a lot of great memories, and was given countless opportunities to live my dream and better myself and my family,” Morris wrote. “With the unknown getting closer I just wanted to take a second and thank the entire Redskins organization for an amazing four years. From Mr. Dan Snyder to Mrs. B.J Blanchard who works the front desk and always greets everyone with a smile. No matter what happens I will always be apart of #RedskinsNation and a special thanks to all the fans and their abundance of love, support, and loyalty y’all make this game what [it] is.”

posting.php?mode=reply&f=2&t=41266

Born and raised a Skins fan, unheralded draft pick that took the team and nation by storm, awesome character and work ethic, key part of our amazing 2012 season . . . safe to say I'll never forget Morris or fail to think fondly of his time here as long as I'm a Redskins fan.

As always... pure class...

Did Morris ever upgrade his car? I know he could have done so 3x over. Anyone know his total net salary over 4 years...?
I'm just saying that an undrafted player can STILL make excellent money ............and Morris is a prime example of pure class and discipline.