Around here, we know well who Nicholas Morrow is and what he brings to the field. The former undrafted linebacker played on a second-round tender last season, which should be an indication of the value the Raiders place on him. That value was confirmed just prior to last season when, according to a source, as many as seven teams reached out to the Raiders inquiring about acquiring Morrow in trade. They were turned away.
Shortly after the season was over, the Raiders expressed interest in bringing him back. But at this moment, the expectation is that the 25-year-old linebacker will test free agency.
Though, if you look around at the national publications, you may not know it.
There are a number of lists out there of top pending free agents. They all seem to have a different arbitrary number of players in their rankings. Our own Touchdown Wire put out a list of their top 101 pending free agents, The Athletic put out a top 50 and then added 63 more at the end (so, 103), Sporting News put out a list of 50 and then when listing by position it added up to 135, and Pro Football Focus initially put together a list of 150.
All those lists, and yet on none of them could you find the name Nicholas Morrow.
It wasn’t until PFF updated their list to stretch it to 200 that Morrow’s name showed up — at number 195.
That ranking was below 2020 teammate Raekwon McMillan (183) who barely saw the field, just breaking double-digit snaps in a game three times all season. And when he did play, he was a serious liability both against the pass and the run.
Morrow, on the other hand, was the best linebacker on the field for the Raiders, starting 11 games. In his 14 games last season, he led the team in solo tackles (62) and was second in tackles for loss (8) and sacks (3).
It’s strange, honestly. But being overlooked is unfortunately something to which Morrow has grown quite accustomed.
“My agent brought that to my attention. I don’t even look at a lot of it,” Morrow told me of his low or no ranking among free agent lists. “It’s not a sore spot because…let’s put it this way; coming out of high school, I’d only started one year and I’d only played seven games. So I had no film, and I had guys that were three stars, four stars, other guys that went to D-1 schools, they were all in front of me and I looked at them and I said I can play. I know that I can play. But I know I’m not going to get a D-1 scholarship because I didn’t have the experience. So, I went to Division-III (Greenville). And when I was there, after about my first or second year, as I got bigger and stronger, there weren’t a lot of guys that were comparable to me. So, I decided no matter what, whatever the case may be, each week I’m going to compete against my best self. So, if I go in there and have seven tackles, a sack, or whatever, I’m going to make sure that next week, that’s even better. That’s kind of how I have to look at it.”
That approach would end up getting him signed as an undrafted free agent by the Raiders and then earn him a spot on the roster. And, as it happens, it would serve him each and every season of his four-year career.
After a standout rookie season in 2017 that had him outplay every Raiders’ drafted rookie and starting five games, the Raiders weren’t ready to give him a starting job. The same thing happened in each of his four seasons with the team.
Each year, despite the team not investing heavily in the linebacker position until this past offseason, they still always brought in a veteran to start ahead of Morrow. And each time, he would ultimately win the job back.
“I just got to make sure that whoever is in front of me, I got to make sure I can learn from them,” Morrow said. “I had guys like Brandon Marshall in front of me, Tahir [Whitehead] was in front of me, and then before that Derrick Johnson was playing in front of me, so I had guys that were playing in front of me who had been in the league for a while and had success so I knew I could learn something from those guys. I remember during that time I was meeting with DJ during training camp after every practice because I want to learn whatever you have, whatever you know. However you see it, I want to see it that way. I want to make plays and process things faster. That’s a guy I leaned on a lot during that time, even when they let him go I was still talking to him.”
Last offseason, the Raiders released Tahir Whitehead and made big investments in Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski to upgrade the linebacker spot. And ironically, it actually led to Morrow starting a career-high 11 games and playing 100% of the snaps six times.
What Morrow has been throughout his career is a weakside linebacker. The 6-0, 230-pounder is an outstanding coverage linebacker and last season showed he can generate pressure on the blitz as well.
The stats from last season bear out his coverage abilities. He allowed just five yards per target which were behind only Roquan Smith and Lavonte David, while his nine pass breakups trailed only KJ Wright (10) amongst linebackers. He is also the only player in the NFL last season with three or more sacks and nine or more passes defended.
What still eludes him, however, is the perception that he can be a three-down player. Which he thinks he is.
“I don’t think that I’m a guy who needs to be limited to just third-down packages,” Morrow said. “You think about what I did this year; I played all three. I play SAM, I play WILL, and I played MIKE. Some games I played all three of them in one game.
Our scheme was very versatile because there are times when you’ll look at me and I’m on the line of scrimmage. And some games you’ll look at me and I’m dropping and I’m playing Tampa-2. I’ve done so many things with PG (Paul Guenther) and that’s the thing with PG is he puts us in so many different situations based on a game plan. . . I don’t think there’s a scheme that I wouldn’t understand the basics of the defense because of the versatility that PG allowed us to have.”
Much like some of the players the Raiders have signed — Nick Kwiatkoski for instance — Morrow is young and feels like he is ready to step into a starting job. He is hoping there is at least one team that sees that too. And for once in his football career, he will not be overlooked.
“They can rank whoever they want in front of me,” Morrow added. “The organization can bring whoever they want in front of me, I can’t look at it as I gotta be better than those guys, because the reality is, once I’m better than those guys, what’s next? You know what I mean? What do I reach for now? I just have to make sure that I’m being the best that I can be, I’m competing against my best self, and I’m constantly getting better. As long as I do that, eventually it will show. And maybe they don’t respect it right now, they don’t look at it right now, but I just believe in my heart of hearts, as long as I’m going out there and I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, I’m preparing the way I’m supposed to prepare, and my opportunity comes, I take absolute advantage of it and I’ll be all right.”
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