Tanner Morgan, QB, Minnesota
Beyond K.J. Costello and Kyle Trask, another darkhorse contender for the quarterback rise is Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan. The quarterback was a big part of Minnesota’s impressive run last year, as the sophomore passer completed 66% of his throws for 3,253 yards and 30 touchdowns, with just seven interceptions.
What clicked for Morgan was two-fold. First, when he dropped to throw he enjoyed having two tremendous talents to target in the passing game: Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman. Second, the offense was very quarterback friendly, with an emphasis on run/pass option designs that put defenders into conflict as well as some simplified route structures that gave Morgan some defined reads both pre-snap and post-snap.
However, some things have changed. Johnson, who showed first-round talent before falling in the draft, is now catching passes from Tom Brady in Tampa Bay. Bateman, who entered this draft cycle as another first-round player, decided to opt-out a week ago. If the Big Ten proceeds with football, Morgan will have a change to put more on his shoulders and that would really catch the eye of NFL evaluators. That, coupled with some schematic growth in the offense, could give Morgan the boost up draft boards we saw from Burrow a season ago. Could he get all the way to 1.01? That seems like a stretch, but we said the same things about Burrow this time last year.