The Buffalo Bills’ tight end painted a clear picture of the stress players go through on the day teams across the NFL trim their rosters to 53.

“Waking up this morning, my stomach’s just all the way on the ground,” Morris said. “I sat in the parking lot and was breathing. I knew I’ve done what I can and put my best foot forward. It’s up to God and the staff to make the decision. I was walking in the building and took a deep breath and got through the doors. There’s always staff waiting there to tell guys whatever the news is. I walked by, went to treatment and nobody stopped me. So I said ‘I guess that’s a good sign.’ ”

Still, Morris wasn’t totally comfortable. Even after going through practice, he told reporters crowded around his locker he still was anxiously awaiting the 4 p.m. deadline for teams to get down to 53 players.

“With me, I never feel like ‘You made it’ because it’s something you’ve got to prove,” Morris said.

At least for now, however, Morris has made it. That even came with a perk: The team corrected the misspelling on the nameplate over his locker.

The Bills kept three tight ends on their initial, 53-man roster – starter Dawson Knox, Morris and fourth-year veteran Tommy Sweeney. That meant the team cut veteran O.J. Howard.

“Really, I don’t feel like I beat anybody. Every day you’ve got to work to stay,” Morris said. “Even now, I guess I made the team, but I feel every day you have to put your best foot forward. … You could be here one minute and gone the next.”

That’s what happened to Howard, who spoke to The Buffalo News on Monday about the possibility of not making the team.

“As a mindset for yourself, nobody's ever safe, so you always have to have that perspective and just leave it all out on the field every time you get an opportunity,” he said.

In his case, that turned out not to be enough. No general manager has a perfect batting average in the draft or free agency, but releasing Howard represents a fairly significant swing and miss by Brandon Beane. Howard’s entire base salary of $1.945 million was guaranteed, and the Bills will have to eat that money. Howard will count $2.62 million against the Bills’ cap this year and another $625,000 in dead money next year – all for a player who will end up not playing a down in the regular season.

When the Bills signed Howard, it was thought he would replace Sweeney as the No. 2 tight end. Instead, that spot will now come down to either Sweeney or Morris.

“There is always going to be competition in this league,” Sweeney said. “It's the best of the best, so whoever they bring in, it's going to be a good player, whether it's somebody you know or you don't. ... Just kind of can't really put so much into it. Just put it in the back of the mind and whether somebody is there or not, you've just got to go push forward.”

Sweeney called the last day or so stressful, which is a feeling shared by bubble players throughout the NFL.

“A lot of jobs being won and lost,” he said. “It's completely out of your hands. You just hope that the last couple weeks, you've put your best stuff out there, and hopefully that lets you sleep at night, regardless of win or lose, figuratively. So it's stressful, but at the end of the day, it's kind of out of your hands. You've just got to show up every day at camp and give your best and hopefully that puts you in best position for that time.”

Sweeney has been a fighter during his time with the Bills. He missed all of 2020 season after being diagnosed with myocarditis – inflammation of the heart – following a Covid-19 infection. He returned in 2021 to play in 13 games, including three starts.

“Obviously there was some doubt, just naturally with everything that happened, but everybody here was great,” Sweeney said when asked if he reflected back to 2020, and the possibility that his career might be over. “They gave me the mindset of working on those little things, so when I did come back, it would be in a position like this. We had a lot of competition here in the tight end room, so naturally everybody is kind of (trying to) bring their best.”