Behren Morton shows off healthy shoulder in impressive social media post

One of the biggest questions the Texas Tech football team faces heading into the 2024 season is the health of quarterback Behren Morton's throwing shoulder. Friday, Texas Tech fans got a bit of good news in that regard.

Morton posted on social media two separate videos that show him launching deep throws to a receiver some 50 yards or more down the field. After one of the throws, Morton turns to the camera, flexes his right arm, and says "We're back Red Raider nation".

While two offseason workout throws don't mean Morton is destined for a Heisman Trophy, they are interesting developments. After all, in early April, Texas Tech shut Morton down in the middle of spring practices to give his shoulder more time to heal from a sprain of his AC joint, an injury sustained early in the 2023 season and one that nagged him for the rest of last fall.

It was clear that the injured throwing shoulder limited Morton a season ago. He averaged just 6.0 yards per pass attempt, down from 6.6 yards per attempt in 2022.

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 to six weeks to 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 Tahj Brooks 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.

Now, it appears that Tech's QB1 is close to being back to full health. The fact that he's being allowed to unleash the type of throws in summer workouts that he showed in Friday's social media videos is a great sign that his shoulder is healing and that he could be 100% by the time August arrives. That's news every Red Raider is glad to receive.