Stats<\/a>: 12 games (12 starts) | 687 offensive snaps | 219-of-332 (66.0%), 2,780 passing yards, 22 TDs, 6 INTs | 89 times pressured (incl. 21 sacks), 4 FMBs | 21 carries (excl. 4 kneel-downs), 75 rushing yards (3.6\/carry) | 1 penalties (incl. 0 declined\/offsetting)<\/p>\nSeason recap: Coming off his most successful season up until that point, Morton decided to stay in school for his final year of eligibility. Entering 2025, his role was very much set: he returned as Texas Tech\u2019s No. 1 quarterback and one of the team\u2019s leaders. He was once again voted captain and went on to start all 12 of the games he appeared in.<\/p>\n
Morton started the season hot, completing almost 70% of his passes and throwing 11 touchdowns versus only one interception over the first three games. However, in Week 4 versus Utah, he struggled: not only did he throw two picks, he also fumbled the ball and exited the game in the third quarter due to a head injury.<\/p>\n
He returned for the next two games, bouncing back from his lackluster performance against the Utes, but again was bitten by the injury bug in Week 7 versus Kansas. He suffered a hairline fracture in his right leg injury in the second quarter of that game, and had to sit out the next two contests because of the issue. He eventually returned in early November and led the Red Raiders on a five-game win streak that culminated in the Big 12 Championship.<\/p>\n
Morton played some solid football during that stretch \u2014 64.7% completions, 9 TDs, 1 INT \u2014 but also was not asked to do too much of the heavy lifting to carry the fourth-ranked team in the nation to the playoff tournament. Once there, his season and college career found an underwhelming end: Morton went 18-for-32 for 137 yards with no touchdowns and three turnovers in a CFP quarterfinal loss to Oregon.<\/p>\n
Regardless of that game, Morton had another solid season and earned honorable All-Big 12 recognition for a third time in the last four years. However, his injury woes combined with his role and some uneven outings meant that he seemingly failed to boost his draft stock in any meaningful way in 2025.<\/p>\n
Position: Third-string quarterback | Ability: Camp body\/Practice squad candidate | Contract: Signed through 2029 (2030 UFA)<\/p>\n
What will be his role? As mentioned above, Morton joined a team with a clear-cut quarterback hierarchy when he was drafted by the Patriots. With Drake Maye locked into the starter role and Tommy DeVito effectively guaranteed to serve as his backup, the rookie will spend spring and summer as the team\u2019s QB3 with only limited prospects of climbing up the depth chart.<\/p>\n
What is his growth potential? Morton has some limitations in terms of arm talent and overall athleticism that might cap his ceiling in the NFL. He also has plenty of shortcomings that very much are fixable, though, including his decision making, mechanics and play diagnosis. If he can improve in those areas, he could develop into a suitable second-string quarterback further down the line.<\/p>\n
Does he have positional versatility? As evidenced by the fact that he averaged only 4.5 yards per rushing attempt over his two seasons as a starter \u2014 a solid number but one not indicative of a dual-threat player \u2014 Morton is not a particularly versatile quarterback. Yes, he has some versatility in his high school background, but he enters the NFL as a rather one-dimensional player at the position. That does not necessarily have to be a bad thing either, though.<\/p>\n
What is his salary cap situation? Morton signed a standard four-year rookie contract shortly after joining the Patriots that is structured in a straight-forward fashion: it includes a non-guaranteed $885,000 base salary complemented by a fully-guaranteed $37,307 signing bonus proration. His resulting cap hit of $922,307 is not high enough to qualify for Top 51 status, meaning that only his signing bonus is counted against New England\u2019s books during the offseason.<\/p>\n
How safe is his roster spot? Despite hearing his name called in the draft, Morton is not guaranteed a spot on the Patriots\u2019 roster. The chances of him beating out Tommy DeVito for the backup spot behind Drake Maye are slim, which means that the team might have to ask itself a fairly simple question come cutdown day: is a third quarterback more valuable than additional depth elsewhere on the 53-man roster?<\/p>\n
Summary: Morton did look good during the only open practice of rookie minicamp<\/a>, but one session alone does not make the case for a roster spot. He will get his opportunities to earn one, of course, but ultimately might not offer enough upside to be kept around on the active team. Instead, he seems like a prime practice squad candidate at this point in time.<\/p>\nWhat do you think about Behren Morton heading into the 2026 season? Will he be anything more than emergency depth at quarterback? Will he even make the roster? Please head down to the comment section to share your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots entered the 2026 NFL Draft with a clear hierarchy at quarterback. Nonetheless, they opted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,52640,728,6,15],"class_list":["post-901431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-draft","tag-football","tag-new-england-patriots-analysis","tag-new-england-patriots-roster","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116639013490308683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}