Hello,
So your Nexus 7 was updated to Android 4.4.4? Is it stock w/ locked bootloader?
Before we get into the details which version of Android are you wishing to return to?
Yes you can use Nexus Root Toolkit like Wugsfresh or you can do it manually which requires some more work but if your the techy type is fun to learn and gives you a sense of accomplishment when you've successfully done it.
For what its worth, you only need to have an unlocked bootloader to flash the factory images. Completing the root process is not required unless you want to flash custom ROMs or use root access to add a custom recovery to do things like make full system backups or do some other basic root related options.