Some quarterback prospects aren’t off and running
State natives Morgan, Stanley buck NFL trend
INDIANAPOLIS - Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, DeShaun Watson and Josh Allen are among those to blame for making quarterbacks who earn their living in the pocket seem obsolete.
Everybody wants a guy who can stretch the confines of the field either horizontally (when he needs a second or two more to throw the football) or vertically (when his feet must get him where he needs to go).
These young, athletic quarterbacks are the face of the NFL, and even a passing machine such as LSU's Joe Burrow, who is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the draft this year, boasts terrific skills outside of the pocket.
If you're James Morgan or Nate Stanley, a pair of Wisconsin natives with hopes of having their names called during the draft, you know you're not part of the new breed of quarterback taking the NFL by storm.
“I don't know if I'd categorize myself as a running quarterback,” Morgan said with a laugh during his 15-minute interview period at the NFL combine last week. “I think that especially with the system that I was in, it was set up for me to be able to sit back, analyze the defense and make some throws.”
“Or more succinctly put, I think that if I had a forte, I'm going to sit back in the pocket, I'm going to rip it around and pick apart the defense.”
After two years at Florida International, where he set a single-season school record with 26 touchdown passes in 2018, Morgan is going to get a
chance to make an NFL roster. At 6-4, 229 pounds, Morgan didn’t blow away the field with his testing numbers, finishing 10th out of the 13 quarterbacks who took part in both the 40-yard dash (4.81 seconds) and vertical jump (29 inches).
He finished last in the three-cone drill, which tests for agility and quickness.
In the passing drills at the combine, however, Morgan performed well, making it very likely he will be selected on the third day of the draft.
One scout who had studied him predicted he would be drafted in the fifth or sixth round because of his strong arm, experience in a pro scheme under former NFL head coach Butch Davis and his intelligence. His strong performance in the East-West game and at the combine could move him up the board.
The NFL is always looking for guys who can sling it even if they might not have the legs to run it.
“Definitely something that translates is my arm strength and my anticipation,” Morgan said. “I think if you look at my tape you can see an NFL skill set with that regard. Something I’ve been working on the last couple of months is mobility, just being quicker, moving in the pocket, being able to evade, stay on balance and throw from different arm slots.”
The Packers are a team that may take a quarterback in this draft, and while coach Matt LaFleur likes quarterbacks who can move, it’s not a prerequisite for his offense. The Packers’ No. 2, Tim Boyle, is a pocket passer, and other quarterbacks in the system such as Matt Ryan, Jimmy Garoppolo and Jared Goff aren’t known as runners.
Morgan said he spoke with Packers officials at the East-West Shrine game. Because he is considered a “local” product and wouldn’t count against the 30player limit each team must follow when it comes to hosting draft prospects, Morgan will probably make an official visit to Lambeau Field.
It will basically be a trip home. He attended Ashwaubenon High School, which is a short walk from the stadium.
There he was Fox River Classic Conference offensive player of the year in both 2013 and ’14, leading the team to a 19-3 record his final two seasons. Wearing No. 4 in honor of quarterback Brett Favre, he threw for 7,507 yards and 70 touchdowns in three seasons.
He was a three-star recruit but didn’t receive even a walk-on offer from Wisconsin, finally choosing Bowling Green over offers from Central Michigan, Ball State, Eastern Michigan, North Dakota State and Southern Illinois.
After redshirting his freshman year, he started 13 games (wearing No. 12) over the next two seasons. He completed 51.9% of his passes for 3,342 yards and 25 touchdowns with 22 interceptions playing in head coach Mike Jinks’ spread offense.
When Jinks was fired, Morgan decided to move on. He had completed an undergraduate degree in pre-law in three years and decided to look for a place where he could play football and attend graduate school.
He started out working social media channels to see if there was interest in him.
“I got some medium responses but one of my buddies worked for a recruiting service and I actually purchased from him a list of literally all the emails of college coaches in the entire nation,” Morgan said. “I literally sent a block email to like 60 coaches, three (each) from 20 schools I had picked out.
“The only person who responded to me was (recruiting coordinator) Bryn Renner from FIU and it just so happened to be the perfect situation for me.”
In two seasons playing for Davis, Morgan completed 420 of 683 passes for 5,312 yards and 40 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. His number of touchdown passes dropped from 26 to 14 last year, but it was a bad season all the way around for the Panthers, who finished 6-7.
What Morgan did take out of his two years at FIU is a better understanding of what it will take to succeed in the NFL.
“The difference for me (from Bowling Green) was accountability for the quarterback,” he said. “You talk about protections and read progressions and hots and all that stuff, that really appealed to me detail-wise.
“I’d say (it) definitely prepared me, especially the interviews I already had. But especially for an NFL offense as well.”
The state’s other QB prospect, Stanley, is more of a stationary pocket passer than Morgan. At Iowa, the Menomonie native played in 44 games and completed 673 of 1,155 passes (58.3%) for 8,297 yards and 68 touchdowns with 23 interceptions.
To be more mobile, Stanley dropped 10 pounds after the season and measured in at 6-4, 235 pounds at the combine. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.81 seconds, had a 281⁄2-inch vertical leap and ran a 7.26-second three-cone drill.
Scouts are skeptical that he can be anything but a sitting duck in the NFL.
“He could go Day 3,” said another scout. “But he’s a dinosaur. He’s a statue.”
Stanley does have a strong arm and until he threw three interceptions against Michigan, he had gone 139 straight without being picked off. But he was sacked eight times as the Wolverines blitzed him heavily.
Though Stanley said he might not have great scrambling ability, he still thinks he has something to offer.
“I still feel like the majority of the NFL, yeah, they have the option to move to the running quarterback, but a lot of the NFL is still the drop-back pocket passer,” he said. “With that said, I feel that I’m mobile enough to run if I have to and to make plays with my feet when I need to.”