newsobserver.com

Panthers GM Dan Morgan’s son Brady stars for Marvin Ridge after injury comeback

We break down Week 1 of the NCHSAA and NCISAA playoffs and look ahead to Friday's games. We also present the semifinalists for the 2025 N.C.Mr. Football award By Langston Wertz Jr.| lwertz@charlotteobserver.com

When Brady Morgan first enrolled at Marvin Ridge High School four years ago, the young football player asked his father to start watching game film with him.

Morgan’s father, Dan, was a first-round pick by the NFL’s Carolina Panthers in 2001, and he’s been in the team’s front office since 2021, ascending to his current role as general manager.

So, Dan Morgan knows a thing or two about football.

Marvin Ridge High linebacker Brady Morgan on Thursday, November 13, 2025. Morgan and his teammates will be facing Weddington High in prep football action on Friday, November 14, 2025. Morgan is the son of former NFL linebacker and Carolina Panthers President of Football Operations/General Manager Dan Morgan. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com

“It helped a lot,” Brady Morgan said Thursday morning, standing on the track at his school’s football field. “Dad usually gets home at 7, and he usually just relaxes, but we kind of bonded watching high school and college and pro film. He gave me lots of pointers.”

That Thursday father-son night became a weekly engagement. It hasn’t stopped, and that extra hard work — and, perhaps, some good genes — seems to have helped a lot.

Brady Morgan became a starter at Marvin Ridge as a sophomore, and is having a stellar senior season, averaging nine tackles per game as a 6-foot, 200-pound safety and linebacker.

Morgan and Marvin Ridge (6-5) play at Union County rival Weddington (9-1) in a second-round NCHSAA 7A playoff game Friday.

“He’s an excellent football player,” Charlotte Catholic coach Keith Emery said of Brady. “He’s physical, and he understands the game, and he’s always around the ball. He’s tough to block.”

Before Marvin Ridge beat Charlotte Catholic, 7-3, last month, Emery said his team had identified No. 6, Morgan’s jersey number, as a player to key on after watching film.

Charlotte Catholic’s game plan, Emery said, was “to run away from 6.”

The plan didn’t work out so well.

Morgan had eight tackles, a QB hurry, a pass defended and a tackle for a loss.

“We tried to identify where he was on every single play,” Emery said. “But he’s tough to block, and he seemed to find a way to get it done. He was always making plays. He was everything we thought he was.”

‘I never wanted to be that dad’

Dan Morgan, now 46, grew up in Florida. He was an all-county high school running back, linebacker and strong safety for the Taravella Trojans. He started college football at Miami as a fullback, but switched positions one week before his freshman season began. Morgan became the first freshman to start at linebacker for the Hurricanes since Ray Lewis in 1993.

Dan Morgan (41), then a Taravella High School fullback, runs with the ball. Morgan went on to start at Miami, and then for the Carolina Panthers of the NFL. Alan Freund/Herald Staff

Morgan was named a freshman All-American and eventually built a Hall of Fame career at Miami before the Panthers took him with the 11th overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft.

He played for the Panthers from 2001-07, earning a 2004 Pro Bowl nod, and starred on the Carolina team that lost to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII, when he had a Super Bowl record 18 tackles.

Today, Morgan — who also has two daughters — said he rarely misses his son play and just enjoys watching from the stands. He said he coached Brady on the fundamentals growing up, but made a point to try to not be overbearing with his son or with his son’s coaches.

“I never wanted to be ‘that dad,’” Dan Morgan said. Telling coaches ‘Like, you need to play my son,’ all this type of stuff. So I really was hands off, kind of let his coaches coach him, but I would always give pointers and things like that. So when we watch film on Thursdays, when I get home from work, we can watch the opponent and see if we can come up with different things that he can look at, keys for the run, pass, all that kind of stuff.”

Carolina Panthers general manager Dan Morgan watches the team run through drills during an OTA practice on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com

When Brady was around 10 years old, Dan Morgan got a job as the Bills’ director of player personnel. Brady said he loved the cold weather in Buffalo and picked up snowboarding. He also went to games and practices with his dad, met many of his football heroes, and especially remembers how nervous he was to meet Richard Sherman, the defensive back of Seattle Seahawks “Legion of Boom” fame.

“I was shaking a little when I met him,” Brady Morgan said.

Today, he’s a big Panthers’ fan, probably to no one’s surprise, and he’s become a big Bryce Young guy, and Brady said he said he gets a kick out of how he can be around the team and how some of the players, even Young, will recognize him and greet him sometimes.

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t cool,” he said.

Morgan said being around pro players and having a former pro as a dad just makes him chase football even harder.

“I love this game,” he said. “I love to play it. I think I know how to play. And I don’t want to stop.”

The injury and the comeback

A year ago, in the eighth week of the season, Brady Morgan suffered a knee injury and he missed the remainder of the season after surgery. He still gets treatment today.

“That was probably the most painful thing I’ve ever had to go through,” Brady said. “But I wanted to get back with my guys. I wanted to play.”

His father said seeing his son go through that was hard, knowing injuries had ended his own career. But he just loves watching Brady do what Brady loves to do — playing every Friday night.

“It’s just seeing how much he loves football and how much he loves playing football,” Dan Morgan said. “I just really want him out there having fun. That’s always been my goal for him, like, go out there, compete, have fun and play with good effort. But you know, as a dad, you’re just always rooting him on, and you’re always concerned about injuries. So there’s the excitement but also the angst, from the injury standpoint.”

Marvin Ridge High head football coach Aubrey Carter on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com

Marvin Ridge coach Aubrey Carter said Brady has been even better this year than he was last season, a tribute to the hard work he put in during his rehab process.

He said that Morgan is drawing serious interest from Football Championship Subdivision schools and expects him to not only be a college player, but someone who will help a program win.

“He’s got really good instincts,” Carter said. “As a football player, he’s really smart, a really good tackler in space. He’s one of the best kids I’ve had in space.”

Carter coached former Panthers’ GM Scott Fitterer’s son, Cole, and now he’s coaching Brady Morgan and defensive lineman Manny Lewis, whose father Damione, played in the NFL for 10 seasons, including three with the Panthers. Damione Lewis is now coaching with the Dolphins.

“So we’ve had kids like that, with the NFL ties,” Carter said. “It’s kind of like old hat. So when Dan comes to games, he just kind of blends in. I don’t think Dan’s missed a game. I mean, the family’s here for everything, and Brady is playing really, really well for us.”

And that’s the part that Dan Morgan appreciates most.

‘It’s fun watching him,” Dan Morgan said, “because you see the work that he puts in. After he hurt his knee, to see him getting up every morning and going to rehab, things like that. He has the work ethic to push through adversity and come out of the other side, and the way he’s been performing after all that, I think that probably makes me the most proud of all.”

Read full news in source page