The Denver Broncos paid a steep price to trade up for Iowa cornerback Riley Moss in last year’s NFL draft.
The Broncos gave up 2023’s pick No. 107 in the third round plus a 2024 third-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for pick No. 83. Denver then used that pick from the Seahawks to select Moss.
So far, Moss hasn’t lived up to the trade.
After being sidelined early in the 2023 season following core muscle surgery, Moss ended up dressing for 14 games, but he did not earn any starts. The young cornerback played 265 snaps on special teams (68%) but was barely used on defense, playing just 23 snaps (3%).
Broncos general manager George Paton defended Moss during his end-of-season press conference in January.
“Riley Moss, we feel, is a starter in this league,” Paton said on January 9. “He was one of our best special teams players, if not the best.
“We saw it in practice. We saw the cover skills, and we saw the transition quickness, toughness and instincts. You saw it a little bit in-game. He played a little bit of the dime role.”
Apparently, Denver’s staff wasn’t impressed enough from Moss’s impressive practices to give him more snaps on defense. It’s hard to gauge if Paton truly believes Moss has brighter days ahead or if the GM was merely attempting to save face in the presser.
To be fair to both Moss and Payton, it should be remembered that the cornerback was coming off surgery, and one season is not enough of a sample size to label a player a bust. But if Moss does not have a much better season in 2024, trading a pair of third-round picks to acquire him will look like a big mistake in hindsight.
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