The Lass Word: Jordan Morgan – Short Arms, Big Heart

One and one-eighth of an inch.  Less than half the length of a toothpick.  Doesn’t seem like much, does it? But Jordan Morgan was concerned that one and one-eighth of an inch was going to cost him millions of dollars. 

Morgan is an offensive lineman.  More specifically, he is a tackle.  Pro scouts love for their tackles to have long arms.  The general standard is arm length at least 34 or 35 inches.  Morgan’s arms were measured at 32 and seven-eighths.  That’s one and one-eighth short of the “standard”.  May seem trivial to you, but the former Arizona star was legitimately worried that it would keep him out of the first round of the NFL draft.  And once drafted, it might motivate teams to play him inside at guard or center, where shorter arm lengths are more common.  Inside linemen make millions of dollars less than tackles.  Morgan wants to play tackle. 

The reason teams like their tackles to have long arms is easy to understand.  These are the guys responsible for protecting the quarterback from those quick outside pass rushers like Micah Parsons, TJ Watt, Maxx Crosby and Nick Bosa.  One of the best ways to do that is to extend your arms and keep pushing the pass rusher wider and wider, so that the quarterback can step up in the pocket.  It seems logical that the longer your arms, the better push off you can make.  

But while long arms are an asset to a tackle, they are certainly not mandatory.  Some of the best tackles in the history of the game did not meet the standard.  Last summer, former Wisconsin Badger and Cleveland Brown legend Joe Thomas was inducted into the Hall of Fame.  He had 33 inch arms.  Thomas is not a fan of the emphasis on arm length.  In fact, he once posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the attention paid to the length of a tackle’s arms is “bullshit” and has “nothing to do with the ability to block somebody.”  

Many successful tackles are able to compensate for shorter arms with quick feet, fluid lateral movement and sheer strength. 

Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst certainly had no qualms about Jordan Morgan’s arms.  He snatched up the 6’5”, 311 pounder with Green Bay’s first round pick.  “He played left tackle (in college). He’s got left tackle feet,” Gutey said. “Very athletic kid, very strong, sturdy lower body. We’ve had a bunch of guys that have played outside without prototypical arm length.” 

When the rookies reported for their first camp, Morgan was working at left tackle, although Gutekunst says the team thinks Morgan could play four different positions on the O-line.  The Packers want and expect him to compete with Rasheed Walker for the starting job on the left side. By the way, Walker’s arm length is 33 and 5/8 inches. The incumbent starting tackle on the right side, Zach Tom, has arms measured at 33.5 inches. 

Morgan, for his part, was never concerned about his arm length.  “I get that all the time, the short arm stuff,” Morgan told the beat reporters. “Obviously, they don’t want watch film. I move them pretty well. I move people off the line. It doesn’t bother me. I just prove everybody wrong.”  

 If anything, he was more focused on his complete recovery from a knee injury suffered during his college career. Late in the 2022 season Morgan ran out into the flat to block for a screen pass, when he stepped into some sort of depression on the field. He called it a “pothole”. He tore up his knee which put his 2023 season in jeopardy. But the all Pac 12 star attacked his rehab like a mad man. “I put everything into that recovery process. Got out in nine months. Got to play in nine months. Lot of folks couldn’t really do that and I felt good about that, showing everybody that I was resilient and ready to come back to the team.” 

Gutekunst definitely noticed his quick healing. “It was remarkable how well he played early in the season coming off of it. It just kept getting better and better, so that gave us a lot of confidence in where he’s headed.” 

Where he’s headed is probably a starting role somewhere along Green Bay’s offensive line.  Morgan may have short arms, but don’t be surprised if his contributions to the Green Bay Packers have a long reach for years to come, because one thing you can’t measure is his heart.