Quarterback · New England Patriots

Behren Morton

Rookie

His dad coached him in a plain white helmet, no decal, no exceptions.

The name came first.

James Morton lost his first wife in 1991. She was 27. He was a young coach in Friona, Texas, a former running back who'd had a brief look from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then settled into a life on the sidelines. A man named Jerry Behrens helped him through it. Years later, when James and his second wife Suni had a son, they named the boy Behren -- after Behrens -- and paired it with Bascom, a name already running through generations of the family. The kid carried two families' histories before he ever took a snap.

James eventually landed at Eastland High School, his own alma mater, as head coach. His son grew up on those practice fields. And when Behren was good enough to play varsity as a freshman, James started him. But James also kept him in the freshman locker room all year. And while every other player on that squad wore the full Eastland gear -- school decal on the helmet, the whole thing -- Behren practiced in a plain white helmet. No decal. No exceptions.

There was no ambiguity about what that was. The coach's son was the starter, and the coach's son would get nothing extra for it. The white helmet said so every single day.

It was the kind of thing West Texas doesn't make a big deal about. You just do it.

The recruiting world found Behren Morton anyway. Texas Tech running backs coach Clay McGuire called James when Behren was between his freshman and sophomore year -- they were literally thirty minutes from a private workout at Baylor when the phone rang. A subsequent camp at Texas Tech put Behren in front of head coach Kliff Kingsbury, and something clicked. Morton had grown up going to Red Raiders games, had watched Graham Harrell run that offense as a kid. Baylor, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas, USC -- they all offered. The highest-rated quarterback prospect by 247Sports to ever sign with the program turned them down and picked Lubbock.

To get there faster, Morton doubled up on coursework and graduated early, finishing in December 2020 so he could enroll at Texas Tech in January 2021.

College went the way college goes for quarterbacks trying to take a program somewhere. What it cost him physically was real: a ligament tear in his throwing shoulder that he played through for two seasons before finally having surgery, then a hairline fracture in his leg his senior year. He kept playing. New England drafted him 234th overall in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft -- the last pick on the last day -- and Patriots EVP Eliot Wolf said toughness was the first thing that stood out.

With the NIL money he earned in college, Morton bought 150 acres of hunting land near his parents' home in West Texas.

Not a house somewhere else. Not a car. Land. Near home.

His name is on the back of a Patriots jersey now. His father's lesson is the front of the story.

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