After being picked by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the NFL draft in April, cornerback Riley Moss missed most of the summer after undergoing core muscle surgery.
After being inactive for the first two games of the season, Moss made his NFL debut last week, but he did not get any snaps on defense. He did play 17 snaps on special teams in Week 3, and Moss might be in line to get the first defensive snaps of his rookie campaign in Week 4.
“You have to see how he’s playing on the scout team snaps,” coach Sean Payton said of evaluating Moss. “He’s moving around. He’s really moving now at 100 percent. Coming off an injury, there’s a transition. Fortunately for us, we had enough of an early evaluation where we felt pretty good about what we saw. He’s smart. He does a lot of things well.
“We’ll begin looking at, ‘Hey, what are roles for him?’ We know he’s going to be a factor in the kicking game [special teams], but what are the other roles? I always say this: what do these guys do well? Let’s try to have them do those things. That’s part of the art of game planning and putting those players [in position]. Everyone has some limitations, but what are the strengths and how do we highlight those?”
Right now, Damarri Mathis is starting across from Pat Surtain on the outside and Essang Bassey is playing in the slot. Once Moss gets fully up to speed, he might get an opportunity to compete for the CB2 or CB3 job. For now, he’ll figures to be a key player on special teams and a rotational defensive back.
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