Tanner Morgan probably felt better about signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a college free agent back in April than he would a short time later. The rookie free agent out of Minnesota had the table set for him to earn the third quarterback spot on a team that always keeps three quarterbacks.
Then the Steelers announced the re-signing of Mason Rudolph, who has spent the past five years being either the second or the third quarterback, depending on the year and the circumstances. While Rudolph isn’t guaranteed a roster spot, he’ll naturally be highly favored.
Still, draft analyst Emory Hunt finds himself intrigued by Morgan, who had an interesting college career of ups and downs, as he explained on the College Draft podcast with Ross Tucker recently, saying that he seemed to have three separate careers.
“When he first started, he was someone you thought, ‘This is gonna be a first-round pick’”, Hunt recalled. “Then he was like, ‘Man, this guy is not gonna get drafted’. Then he was like, ‘Well, I like how he stepped in and played good soldier in the bowl game and then he had a really solid showing in the All-Star game circuit”.
In 2019, Morgan threw for 3,253 yards with 30 touchdowns to nine interceptions and led the Golden Gophers to an 11-2 record, defeating Auburn in the Outback Bowl, 31-24. Over the next three years, he threw 26 touchdowns to 19 interceptions. Still, he had previously shown NFL talent, and Hunt thinks there’s enough there to keep him around in some capacity.
“I like Tanner Morgan”, he said. “We saw glimpses of what it could potentially be at his best, when he had [Rashod Bateman] and those guys. You just hope that they can tap into that, but I think this is an opportunity for him”.
“I know they brought back Mason Rudolph”, he went on, also noting Mitch Trubisky, “but this is an opportunity for Tanner Morgan to try to catch one of those guys. But I do feel like he’s going to be on their practice squad. There’s too much talent just to disregard. I feel like he is in a good spot”.
Now, while the Steelers are a team that pretty much uniformly keeps three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, they don’t carry a fourth on the practice squad, at least generally. There just aren’t enough reps to go around to justify that—and imagine how pissed off Rudolph would be if he had to split scout team reps, of all things. He was already talking last year about how he had to barter for reps.
But with Trubisky signing an extension, I think we can safely surmise that Rudolph is still looking to get out of Pittsburgh next year if possible. With a 16-man practice squad, it’s not unreasonable or irresponsible to use one on a fourth arm. But it’s still unlikely to happen, and he’ll very much have to earn even that spot if the coaches are willing to give it. Or maybe he shows out so well that he actually beats out Rudolph for the third spot. I wouldn’t bet on it, but you can if you use your own money.
