The condition of quarterback Behren Morton’s throwing shoulder is one of the main concerns facing the Texas Tech football team in 2024. In that sense, Texas Tech supporters received some positive news on Friday.
Two different films of Morton throwing deep passes to a receiver at least fifty yards down the field were shared on social media. Following one of the tosses, Morton declares, “We’re back, Red Raider nation,” while flexing his right arm in front of the camera.
Even though Morton isn’t guaranteed a Heisman Trophy, two offseason exercise throws are intriguing developments. After all, Texas Tech halted Morton’s spring workouts in early April to allow his shoulder additional time to heal from an AC joint sprain, which he suffered early in the 2023 season and which bothered him the remainder of the previous fall.
It was evident that Morton’s throwing shoulder injury from the previous season hindered him. In 2022, he averaged 6.6 yards per pass attempt; this year, he only managed 6.0 yards.
What’s more, Morton averaged only 29.3 passing attempt per game in his ten appearances. That was down from the 47 he averaged in the three games he started and finished in 2022.
As a result, Morton had no 300-yard passing games last season. He topped out at 282 yards against TCU, a game that saw him attempt 36 passes.
That game was two weeks after Morton had to miss Texas Tech’s road game at BYU to let his shoulder heal. Forced to sit out the contest against the Cougars to give him plenty of rest given that Tech had an open week before playing TCU, Morton missed the only game he would miss last season after taking over as Texas Tech’s starting quarterback in week four at West Virginia following the broken leg sustained by Tyler Shough.
In that game, Morton was tackled on his right shoulder spraining his AC joint. That injury can take up toto heal if allowed to fully rest. However, Morton didn’t have that opportunity during the season.
Each game that Morton played seemed to take its toll on his right shoulder. Thus, to get through the season, the Red Raiders had to ask running back to run the ball 290 times, a number that is beyond ideal for any ball carrier at the college level.
Of course, Red Raiders assumed that Morton would be fine by spring practice, though. So when Morton was shut down, fans across the South Plains were rightly concerned about Morton’s health and they wondered whether or not he would even require surgery.
