John Morgan spent a bulk of the last few years as a starter. That probably won’t be the case in 2023.
The defensive end transfer from Pittsburgh arrived to Arkansas in the offseason to play his final year of college football for the Razorbacks. During his time with Pitt, Morgan logged 23 tackles for-loss and 14 sacks. Those numbers place him higher than anyone else on the Razorbacks’ roster.
In fact, no one else even comes all that close among returners on Arkansas’ line. And that’s a big reason he decided to become a Razorback.
“Coming from Pittsburgh, I always played with a deep defensive line and I felt that was something that’s needed in these top conferences,” Morgan said. “You can’t really go in with five or six guys and think it’s gonna work out because injuries happen.”
Even if Morgan doesn’t find himself a starter Week 1, he will almost certainly get enough snaps – barring injury – that he should be among the team leaders in sacks and tackles for-loss by season’s end.
Missouri transfer Trajan Jeffcoat, returning senior Zach Williams and newly-healthy Taurean Carter and second-year-in-the-system end Landon Jackson. One of them won’t make the two-deep, but that’s largely irrelevant considering how much defensive line coach Deke Adams plans to roll them.
“I think depth is the biggest thing for us and knowing we have a good defensive line now, I think we’re going to have a great season,” Morgan said.