David Morgan seemed like a background player for the Minnesota Vikings in 2016, but he should see his role increase as a tight end during the 2017 season.
Many fans of the Minnesota Vikings may not be very familiar with tight end David Morgan. so far in his career, the tight end out of UTSA only has one catch for 4 yards in his official statistics, but numbers don’t always tell the whole story.
Where Morgan earns the bulk of his work is in the blocking game, yet the sixth round draft pick only played on 63 offensive snaps as a rookie last season despite a shaky and banged up offensive line.
Recently, the Star Tribune spoke with David Morgan about his role with the teams and how he is looking to be on the field more and contribute more to the team’s offense going forward, and he mentioned former teammate Rhett Ellison as someone he studied.
"“[Ellison] was one of those guys that was heavily relied on to do whatever the job was,” Morgan said. “That was a guy I really looked up to when I got to this place and really dug into his brain.”"
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Minnesota could be in line to use a lot more formations using two tight ends in the future, and that means that Morgan will likely see an increase in his usage this season. Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was asked about that particular situation and confirmed that he is in line for a bigger workload.
"“I anticipate he will,” Zimmer said. “He’s done a good job blocking. You know he’s always caught the ball well.”"
The Vikings did add another tight end in the 2017 NFL Draft, but rookie Bucky Hodges will likely not be called upon to be a blocker in most situations, as he should be more of a red-zone target this season.
Next: Vikings 2017 schedule breakdown
David Morgan won’t be on anyone’s fantasy football teams or likely see many highlights, but he’s the kind of hard-nosed player that Mike Zimmer and the Minnesota Vikings need in order to bring this offense to the next level.