Chicago Bears Draft Prospect: Quarterback James Morgan

While some draft analysts expect the Chicago Bears to go after Jalen Hurts or Jake Fromm in this month’s draft, perhaps they go after James Morgan.

Earlier this week we profiled Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts as a possible Chicago Bears draft target. He should be available for the Bears to draft with one of their two second-round picks (43rd and 50th picks).

Hurts is a good fit with the Bears, especially when considering the fact that he’ll likely just sit and learn behind Nick Foles and Mitch Trubisky. They have other needs, however, and may decide to wait a little later to draft a quarterback.

There are reports that the Bears met with Florida International University quarterback James Morgan. They first met with him at the East/West Shrine game and were impressed by his interview and his play in the game. They also met with him at the NFL Combine.

If you don’t know who Morgan is, he’s one of the hottest quarterback prospects in the draft. Despite him rising, he’s still projected to go in the middle to late rounds.

In 2019, Morgan completed 58 percent of his passes for 2,585 yards and 14 touchdowns. Nothing flashy, right?

Morgan did have a better 2018. He completed 65.3 percent of his passes and threw 24 touchdown passes.

Measurables

Morgan measures 6-foot-4 and weighs 229 pounds.

Strengths

What Morgan has is a canon for an arm. He can make any kind of throw on the field. Scouts view him as having one of the three best arms in this draft. When you have a big arm, teams will take a look at you.

Morgan is also a very tough player. He’ll stay in the pocket and take punishment to make the pass. He’ll try to play through injuries as well. He suffered a knee injury in 2019 but played through it. That is likely the reason his numbers went down from 2018. Additionally, he suffered from his receivers dropping a lot of passes. The FIU receivers were among the leaders in the nation in dropped passes.

Another aspect of Morgan’s game is that while he’ll take punishment, he does a good job of avoiding getting hit too much. He has a quick release, and while he isn’t particularly fast or athletic, he’ll step away from the pressure to buy some time.

When you think of a gunslinger quarterback you assume that while the quarterback makes big plays he’ll also throw a lot of interceptions. That is not the case with Morgan. In 420 attempts in his two seasons at FIU he only threw 12 interceptions.

Weaknesses

Morgan needs to work on his mechanics, especially his hips. He has a tendency to open his hips too wide which makes the ball sail away from the receivers. Also, while he can sometimes move away from the pocket to avoid the rush, he isn’t very mobile and you won’t see him taking off to run very much.

How does he fit?

When he was healthy and didn’t try to force things, Morgan had much success. He can make any type of throw, especially deep. Making those deep throws open things up underneath.

With the number of changes he needs to make in order to succeed in the NFL drafting Morgan would be a good move. With Foles and Trubisky handling things, Morgan wouldn’t have to worry about having to come in too early. That happened to Trubisky in his rookie season. It was just Mike Glennon and him and when Glennon showed he couldn’t get the job done the Bears needed to throw Trubisky to the wolves.

By waiting to pick Morgan later in the draft, the Bears could spend their higher picks on filling other areas that have bigger needs.

If he completes passes at the 65 percent rate and continues to protect the ball well the offense will score more points, leading to more wins and excitement. Chicago Bears fans would be happy with that.