Q&A: Quintin Morris on TE position, 2024 Bills, Josh Allen, Amari Cooper, Chiefs and an NFL going soft
We catch up again with a football purist.
A reminder: Here at Go Long, we love football players who play the sport the way the football gods intended.
Last year, that compass led us to Bar Bill Tavern in East Aurora, N.Y., where Buffalo Bills tight end Quintin Morris was not shy when it came to the state of the game. (Here’s that feature, icymi.)
Since then, of course, we’ve seen more games with more controversial calls. Viewers are becoming conditioned to expect laundry after key plays. It’s not only driving you nuts. Or defensive players. Even offensive players like Morris cannot stand it. Back home this week after reporting trips to D.C. and Minnesota, I popped over to One Bills Drive for a story you’ll see in the near future.
In the meantime, I bumped into Morris.
The backup tight end and core special-teamer hasn’t been targeted this season yet. Last season, he was the recipient of one of Josh Allen’s most spell-binding throws: a game-winner against the New York Giants. Morris insists he’s staying ready.
Here’s our conversation on everything from his gritty position (“Blood and Guts!”) to Josh Allen’s 1-of-1, “insane” brand of quarterbacking to new wideout Amari Cooper and… yes. Those maddening flags.
He has a lot to say.
Thanks for reading, everyone.
Hope to see you inside the Gameday Chat on Sunday.
At this point, you’re a wily veteran. The last time I talked to you was on the verge of the draft when the Bills took a tight end (Dalton Kincaid). So you find a way to survive everything. How have you become a core member of this team?
Morris: Really just continuing to learn. I think with that, at any position, guys are coming in to take your job. If you’re true competitor, it pushes you to further your game and find ways to stay and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. My role is my role right now and the goal, at the end of the day, is to be the one tight end for somebody and really just stay ready until my name is called. Until then, help the team however I can.
Is it hard sometimes when you know what you can bring as a receiver? When you look around, there’s so many guys here that will want targets. You get pushed down the totem pole when, in your head, you’re thinking you should be somewhere up a little higher.
Morris: Oh yeah. It definitely changed for a second. I remember coming from college, being the guy and maybe having the redshirt guy that just got in and he might feel like he wants to be out there, blah, blah blah. Not getting the same love and stuff. I think that’s part of the NFL. Situations. You never know when that shot will come and — whenever it does — you want to make sure you’re ready for it. It’s all part of the process. I have faith that my time will come and, until then, I think the tight end position is always being a team-first guy. You have your individual goals but you’ve got to know that’ll come.
I thought Tony Gonzalez and Dallas Clark put it best: Tight end really can make you question your existence. You’re with the linemen. You’re with the receivers. It can feel like you don’t have a home.
Morris: We have a thing where the “tone-setters” are our O-Line and we have another term we use to call our skills. But then there’s tight end and you’re like, “I’m like an O-Line and a receiver, so what do you call us?” We’re both. That’s the beauty of the position. You get a little piece of everything and we always like to say, “Bro, that’s the second-hardest (position) to the quarterback because you’ve got to know what’s going on inside. You’ve got to know what’s going on outside. You’re getting banged up every play, but you still got to go out there and be able to run hard and be able catch and your hands and your feet are getting all stepped on. So, it’s tough. It’s definitely not for everybody. But again, I’m blessed to be in the position, blessed to be one of the guys that’s able to do it.
You can preserve what makes the sport special. The violence is still possible at that spot. There were 30 flags against the Jets. What in the hell were we even watching?
Morris: I’m watching the game right here and I’ll see on the screen — that little yellow bar comes across — and I’m like, “What now?”
But this team at this time, you’ve seen plenty ups and downs here. I know it’s the middle of season — there’s still a long ways to go here — what makes you think this is a team that can get over that hump once and for all?
Morris: We’re competitors. It’s real early. If we had lost the first two games and we’ve won out, everybody’s saying one thing. But say we win and we lose these. You’re always as good as your last game, honestly. We try to flip the page and not worry about that. It’s a long season and everything can be all fine and dandy now and it wouldn’t matter because it’s all about how you finish. That’s our mindset. Obviously, nobody wants to lose. That’s what the game creates — a lot of parity. So there’s close games like this. We’ll be fine. As long as we’ve got Josh Allen back there, there’s no telling what the limit is.
That’s got to be a source of eternal hope.
Morris: For sure. He’s insane.
What makes him special? Seeing him day-in and day-out, what gives you that feeling of being in every game?
Morris: It's just that dog mentality. I feel like there’s some quarterbacks that talk it, but don’t really walk it. He’s going to talk it. He’s going to go out there and get chippy. A quarterback that’s chippy, man, that makes you want to bring it even more. Your quarterback’s typically the guy that doesn’t want to take any contact. This dude is going to try to go over top of you, try to go through you. I mean, we wish he would be a little bit safer, but sometimes you’ve got to live by him and die by him. I’m glad he’s on my team.
You’ve got a window open when he’s playing like that. I’m sure there are moments where you’re like, “Don’t get hurt.” But when you take some of that away, you’re going to take away some of the good plays, too.
Morris: For sure. It definitely has to be a little balance. There’s only so many things you can control within the violent game of football. But I mean he’s a guy who comes in and takes care of his body. We try to do our best to make sure we’re not even putting him in those compromising positions. But Josh Allen’s going to be Josh Allen. What was that quote he had put out? He has the smart guy and the reckless guy on his shoulders. And he said, “Sometimes, I need to let that reckless guy out.”
How much do you guys think about the way last season ended, having the Chiefs at home — a play away from being in the AFC Championship Game? Is that something that you can use or something you try to forget about forever?
Morris: I think guys find their feel however they find their feel. There’s some guys, that might be something to think about. Some guys are thinking about feeding their family and that’s their drive. So whatever motivates you, let that be your motivation. Me personally, I don’t really think about the past years. I try to turn the page. The situation sucks. And unfortunately, it’s been the Chiefs however many times it’s been. That’s the hump we’ve got to get over. I learned stuff from those games. Maybe something that we should do different. But other than that, really turn the page. It’s not really something I’m thinking about whenever we do play the Chiefs.
Is there a psychological hurdle to overcome? The Colts in the early 2000s, Bill Polian and Dallas Clark and these guys, they were thinking about the Patriots: How do we get past this team? But then, I’d imagine you also have to worry about yourself and do your thing. That’s why I liked what Brandon did in the draft, unafraid to trade with the Chiefs. Who cares?
Morris: From top to bottom, that’s the mindset from the GM all the way down to the head coach to the team. That’s our mindset: So what we lost to them? We’re not worried about those guys. We’re not going to change our whole draft strategy, our whole gameplan just because of these guys. We have something that works. We beat them plenty of times and, unfortunately, it hasn’t been the times when it counted. But there’s got to be a winner and there’s got to be a loser and it's not always because we play bad or something like that. It’s the NFL. It’s part of it.
You get this guy sitting over here — Amari Cooper — and that helps, too. I thought that the Chiefs would be making a play for him. To get him into this offense, how much does that prepare you for those really important games in January?
Morris: It’s big. Obviously his resume speaks for itself. He’s done a lot of great things in this league and obviously he’s going to do nothing but help us. You saw him last game. He was here midway through the week still was able to come out here and put up numbers and figure the offense out. He’s still learning. And also be that vet guy. We’ve got a young team, a lot of young receivers. He’s that guy that you can go to and get different perspectives and he can help teach the guys. And even me as a tight end, I like picking the receiver’s brains. They’re route runners full-time. So I want to be able to go up to him and ask, “What are you thinking on this?” Obviously, we have different skill-sets. I might not be able to do everybody he does, but those are ways he could help those other receivers.
He’s sitting there talking with Mitch Trubisky right now. He’s probably still learning this offense every hour on the hour. We see him on the field and Keon’s showing him how to run the route. How complicated is this offense? Back to Daboll’s days, it’s the old Patriots system.
Morris: I haven’t been anywhere else, so I couldn’t tell you what their offense is, but I know a lot of guys that have come from different teams, they usually say this is one of the more complex offenses. That’s a testament to who he is. We bring in smart guys that can come in and pick up on it and, shoot, I think the OC (Ken Dorsey) was over there with the Browns anyway. So I think the whole league, there’s a lot of carryover sometimes. There are a few things that are the same, a few things different. So there’s always going to be a learning curve. The league is a lot of the same things that are called different.
When we talked at Bar Bill, you said something to the effect of being really pissed off at where the state of the game was — getting soft — whether it’s the rules or the overall tenor of a game. But you felt you could still go balls to the wall at your position. Do you still feel that way? What is the state of the NFL?
Morris: I’m always on the side of pushing for safety. But, I mean, there’s only so many things that you could do to make the game safe to still being able to call it “football” and not “flag.” One of the biggest ones is seeing, I want to say, it was A.J. Epenesa against the Jets. That was a tackle. I’m literally staring at the scene. Some of the stuff, “Yeah, it can go both ways.” But that one I’m just like, I just don’t know. I try to put myself in the defender’s shoes. Even as an offensive guy seeing that, I love that it’s in our favor, but I don’t know what else you would do. Unless you’re just going to lay him down. And then especially with more of these quarterbacks becoming more mobile. A guy like Josh, I don’t even know how you tackle him lightly. You try to be soft and that’s how you end up getting hurt or he ends up running through you.
Look at Patrick Mahomes’ run last week. He faked like he was going to step out of bounds. I felt bad for that linebacker.
Morris: Yeah, it’s really hard. I’m glad I really don’t have to figure it out. The most I’ll ever hit is on the special teams. With these fines, taking all some of these guys’ money — especially some of these young guys — they’re making a little money but not really making that much. And you’re fining ‘em. So much of this stuff is happening in a split-second. You’ve got guys like a running back, he’s lowering his head. You’re trying to lower. It’s really tick for tack. There are things they just got to learn to let go or at least don’t take money from these guys. Unless you could put yourself in the position that these guys are in — where it’s happening in a split-second — we’re talking about the best of the best. It’s insane.
It’s guys in suits on Park Avenue who aren’t out there on the field. They don’t understand the bang-bang nature of the sport. That’s got to drive players nuts.
Morris: Exactly. Yeah, that’s the biggest thing. I hate that those are the guys who are making the decisions when it should be some type of player representative that’s up there having more of a say. Whenever these rules are being changed.
Maybe players should speak up more.
Morris: I think they are, but really how much can we do? Part of that’s what the NFLPA is designed to do, but there’s only so much we can do. They really have us by the balls sometimes, and it really sucks.
At some point though, we’re going to lose the sport. And it’s kind of already happening. A lot of people tune in because you guys are modern-day gladiators doing something that we could only dream of. There’s Damar Hamlin’s locker right there. He dies on the field and comes back to life. Now, he’s hurling his body into players. As long as there’s blocking and tackling, football is not “safe.”
Morris: Yeah, I feel like in some cases there is a middle ground where you can see eye-to-eye, but then there’s been some hits where I’m like, “I think anybody could have seen it.” My Grandma could be like, “Hey, that was a penalty.” But there’s some things you’ve just got to let go. I get you want to push for safety and enforce certain rules. My biggest thing is taking money from these guys. Knowing the difference between a blatant foul and when it’s more incidental. It’s really hard. It’s more so the split-second decision. And the fact that some guys are still able to torque their bodies and get out the way. It’s hard. I really want to see the science on how they expect somebody to fit up for the tackle, see how he’s approaching, avoid hitting him in the head. It's insane.
I can just remember playing high school football and not wanting to just stick my head in. That’s what you have to do in the open field. There’s no way to just do anything but that when Derrick Henry is running at you.
Morris: Yeah, you got a guy like that, you’re thinking: “I’ve got to throw everything at this guy.” And it might not even matter.
ICYMI:
