How Nicholas Morrow turned getting released into a positive

Nicholas Morrow has been around long enough to understand the old adage that football is a business.

That didn’t make the past few weeks any easier.

Morrow spent training camp with the Eagles, was released for the first time in his career 30 minutes before final cuts, rejoined the Eagles on the practice squad, was promoted to the active roster when Nakobe Dean got hurt and was one of the top-rated linebackers in the entire league in Week 2.

Life in the NFL.

“Yeah, I’d never been released before,” Morrow said. “The way it was said, business is business, and you’ve got to operate like that a little bit. But personally, it’s obviously different the first time it happens to you.”

And it hurt.

To everybody watching the NFL’s waiver wire, it was just another line on a day of hundreds of roster moves.

To Morrow, it was his career.

“I'm human, right? Yeah it hurt,” he said at his locker Friday. “But the professional side of me also says, ‘I got to be ready to go.’ That's the other part of it. It's definitely double-sided.”

Morrow signed with the Eagles in March, ostensibly to help the Eagles replace departed starters T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White.

But when the Eagles set their initial roster at 4 p.m. on Aug. 29, the only linebackers on the 53 were Nakobe Dean, Zach Cunningham and Christian Ellis.

“They didn’t release me until like 3.30, so that's like 30 minutes before the (final) cuts, so that's kind of a whirlwind there,” Morrow said. “But the day after, I told my agent I'm gonna go up to my favorite spot, my favorite spot in the U.S., I'm gonna take a couple days off and hang out a little bit. Take my mind off (football) for a little bit.”

Morrow, undrafted out of NCAA Division 3 Greenville (Ill.) University in 2017, spent four years with the Raiders and one with the Bears before signing with the Eagles last spring.

But he’s at the age – 28 – where it’s no certainty he’ll get another job if he does get cut.

“Nothing is guaranteed in this league,” he said. “Nothing is guaranteed in this life. I had a guaranteed contract in ‘21, broke my leg in training camp, didn't play the whole season. Nothing is guaranteed. But that’s part of the process. It’s part of getting your mind right and ready to go. It's part of being a professional.”

So Morrow headed for one of the most relaxing places in the country – “Don’t write where I went,” he said with a laugh – and re-energized and re-grouped for a few days.

That’s when the Eagles called and offered Morrow a spot on the practice squad. That was Sept. 4. He was on the field when the Eagles returned to practice two days later but was home watching the win over the Patriots when the Eagles opened the season.

“All you can do is watch and stay in the playbook, stay on the film study, watch other games around the league, too, because obviously you can see what other offenses are doing, and that kind of helps you prepare,” he said. “So that's the biggest thing. Just watching. That's all I could do, honestly.”

But when Dean suffered a foot injury that landed him on Injured Reserve, Morrow signed to the 53 on Sept. 12.

Exactly 14 days after he was released.

On Thursday night, Morrow not only played, he started alongside Cunningham at linebacker and played 55 of 58 snaps in his Eagles debut while wearing the green-dot helmet that Dean generally wears.

And in his first game as an Eagle, he had three solo tackles, two QB pressures, a quarterback hit and a fumble recovery in the Eagles’ 34-28 win over the Vikings, and Pro Football Focus graded him out at 75.6, 15^th-highest of 74 off-ball linebackers who played at least 20 snaps in Week 2. His pressure grade of 78.3 was 7^th-highest and his tackling grade of 79.4 was 16^th highest.

“I was changing diapers on Sunday and then playing on Thursday,” Morrow said. “So that was weird. 

“But I got to catch up and watch some other games. What else could I do? But it obviously hurts to not be able to play. That kind of sucks, but I got my opportunity, and I'm happy about that.”