Elliott’s restored eligibility hardly fazes backups Morris, McFadden

Alfred Morris and Darren McFadden are NFL veterans who aren’t fazed by much. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that neither had much of a reaction to Ezekiel Elliott being declared eligible to play in Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Elliott was granted an administrative stay, making him eligible to play at least another week for the Dallas Cowboys. It’s good news for the Cowboys as Elliott is arguably their top offensive threat, although it comes at a time when McFadden and Morris thought more snaps could be coming their way.

For McFadden, it likely means he’ll spend another game day inactive, as he has all season.

“I’m just taking it and rolling with it,” McFadden said. “It is what it is. I stay even keeled. I wasn’t going to get too hyped until Sunday got here, where I knew something for sure.”

Still, McFadden seemed excited about the possibility of seeing game action earlier in the week. He has kept in shape and waited patiently for his opportunity. He even said he hadn’t lost a step and didn’t intend to be tracked down in the open field.

But, as McFadden said, this situation has been fluid all along for Elliott and the Cowboys.

“I’m a ballplayer,” said McFadden, who topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark with the Cowboys as their primary running back in 2015.

“I just deal with it and roll with the decisions put towards me.”

Morris has a similar mindset. He’s served as Elliott’s primary backup this season, and would have been in line for a starting opportunity Sunday.

Morris said his approach will stay the same.

“Nothing changes,” Morris said. “It’s like, ‘All right, back to business as usual.’ So nothing changes.”

The entire Cowboys’ locker room has tried to minimize the distraction as best as possible. It’s been a roller-coaster of emotions with Elliott going from eligible to ineligible on seemingly a daily basis.

All of them would like to see a resolution at some point.

“It’s annoying, and I’m not even in it,” Morris said. “I can’t imagine how he feels. It’s so back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. That gets old after a while.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 2:15 AM with the headline "Elliott’s restored eligibility hardly fazes backups Morris, McFadden."