David Morgan II (born May 19, 1993) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at UTSA from 2011 to 2015 and became the school's first draftee when the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

selected him in the sixth round, 188th overall of the

2016 NFL Draft The 2016 NFL Draft was the 81st annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft beg ...

High school career

Born in

Marble Falls, Texas Marble Falls is a city in Burnet County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 7,033. Lake Marble Falls is part of the Highland Lakes on the Colorado River, the largest chain of lakes in Texas. Hi ...

, Morgan attended Marble Falls High School. A

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player his entire life, Morgan started his

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

journey as a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. From eighth grade on, he started playing as a wide receiver and helped lead his team to its first playoff appearance. He recorded 27 receptions for 478 yards (17.7 avg.) and eight touchdowns en route to first-team all-district honors as a junior. As a senior in 2010, he received second-team class 4A all-state, ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internation ...

'' first-team All-Centex and first-team All-District 25-4A honors after hauling in 68 passes for 1,251 yards (18.4 avg.) and 14 touchdowns. Aside from football, Morgan was a three-time academic all-district honoree and earned honorable mention academic all-state accolades as a senior and also participated in

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

at Marble.

College career

At UTSA, Morgan served as the go-to target for his quarterback. Playing as a reserve in 2011, Morgan flashed talent by catching 13 passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns, with at least one reception in the opening nine contests. He posted a career-long catch-and-run of 63 yards in the season opener against Northeastern State. The following year, Morgan redshirted due to injury and managed just seven catches for 69 yards in his return in 2013. He earned honorable mention All- CUSA recognition as a junior in 2014, nabbing 20 passes for 255 yards and a score while missing more time with another injury. As a senior in 2015, Morgan started all 12 games for the Roadrunners and was named a second-team All-American and second-team All- CUSA selection after finishing among the leading tight ends in the country with 45 receptions for 566 yards and setting the school's single-season record for touchdowns with five while also proving to be a great blocker (

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(PFF) graded him as the top run-blocking tight end in the nation). He twice managed nine receptions in a game during the season, against

Louisiana Tech Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activi ...

and

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, with his 109-yard effort against the Wildcats being UTSA’s first 100-yard receiving game in three years. Morgan refused to take all the credit, saying in the press release: "This is an outstanding honor, one that would not have been possible without my coaches and teammates. To become the first All-American in UTSA history is something that is very humbling.”

Statistics

Professional career

Prior to the draft,

NFL.com The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

ranked Morgan tenth overall among tight ends. Morgan was invited to perform at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, becoming the first player to attend this event in the history of UTSA. In the bench press testing, he ranked number one among tight ends with an official score of 29 repetitions. He also finished first in the 20-yard shuttle with a 4.19-second run, completed the 3-cone drill in 6.93 seconds to place third and took fifth with a time of 11.60 seconds in the 60-yard shuttle. At his pro day, Morgan improved in both his

40-yard dash The 40-yard dash is a sprint covering . It is primarily run to evaluate the speed and acceleration of American football players by scouts, particularly for the NFL Draft but also for collegiate recruiting. A player's recorded time can have a he ...

(4.83 seconds) and

vertical jump A vertical jump or vertical leap is the act of jumping upwards into the air. It can be an exercise for building both endurance and strength, and is also a standard test for measuring athletic performance. It may also be referred to as a ''Sargent ...

(32 inches) in front of over 20 NFL scouts. After moving up eight slots in the sixth round of the

, the

acquired the 188th overall pick and selected Morgan, making him the first ever player from UTSA to be drafted. As a rookie in 2016, Morgan played 11 games and had one reception for four receiving yards. On November 12, 2017, Morgan caught his first career touchdown against the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. On August 31, 2019, Morgan was placed on the reserve/PUP list to start the season after undergoing knee surgery in the offseason. Later, in February 2020, it was revealed that Morgan season suffered a knee dislocation in a 2018 game against the Detroit Lions. Morgan was released by the Vikings on March 13, 2020, with a failed physical designation.

NFL statistics

Personal life

Morgan has a tight bond with his family, particularly his parents and his fiance, Langlie Cooley. Morgan frequently consults with them for important decisions, notably various aspects of the process of transitioning from college football to the NFL. Outside of football, Morgan enjoys the outdoors and frequently goes hunting and fishing. Morgan has an eclectic taste in music and has a penchant for

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...

, born from exposure from his parents as a kid.

References

External links

UTSA Roadrunners bioNFL Combine bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, David II 1993 births Living people People from Marble Falls, Texas American football tight ends Minnesota Vikings players Players of American football from Texas UTSA Roadrunners football players