Could James Morgan be the Patriots next quarterback Draft steal?
The New England Patriots are in line to draft a quarterback, but will they ultimately land on James Morgan?
The New England Patriots are moving forward without Tom Brady, and with only Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer on the depth chart they are all but sure to draft a quarterback. As they apparently leave no stone unturned on that front, ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported the Patriots have had a video conference with Florida International quarterback James Morgan.
According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, Morgan is starting to generate some buzz. Along with the Patriots, the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins have Morgan on their radar.
Morgan looks like a Day 3 pick at this point, somewhere in the top-10 among quarterbacks prospects in this year’s class. He had a mediocre-looking 2019 season, completing 58 percent of his passes for 2,585 yards with 14 touchdowns and five interceptions. His first season at FIU in 2018 was better (65.3 completion rate, 2,727 passing yards, 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions). He transferred to FIU from Bowling Green, where he played in 18 games over the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Morgan has good arm strength and size (6-foot-4, 213 pounds), and he stood out at the East-West Shrine Game. His care for the ball, with just 12 interceptions in 683 pass attempts over two seasons at FIU, surely stands out as NFL teams vet him.
The Patriots may take a quarterback in the first round of draft later this month. But they do have a solid history of finding signal callers further down. That is headlined by Brady of course (199th overall in 2000), but also includes Jimmy Garoppolo (62nd overall in 2014) and Jacoby Brissett (91st overall in 2016). With Brady continuing to play, Garoppolo and Brissett were eventually traded for other assets.
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Level of competition in college is a big factor in Morgan’s evaluation. But if the Patriots go down the path of waiting to draft a quarterback, he’ll be on the radar as an early contingency plan if Stidham shows he’s not the guy for the future.