One of the biggest surprises during the 2021 NFL Draft was the fact that former Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses went unselected. The former five-star prospect had a litany of injury concerns that caused his stock to drop, but when healthy with the Crimson Tide, he showed enough moments of dominance that it’s hard to believe no one took the chance on drafting him.
The Jaguars made quick work rectifying that mistake after the draft, almost immediately signing Moses to a deal as an undrafted free agent. Easily the biggest name in Jacksonville’s group of undrafted prospects, it makes sense that he’s Bleacher Report’s choice for the Jags’ most likely UDFA to make the roster.
Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses’ undrafted status surprised his former head coach, Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide coach explained:
“It had nothing to do with what kind of football player he is. It was all based on medical grades by the teams, which, frankly, was a little surprising to me. My time in the league, when guys came back and played, that usually got (them) out of that ‘5’ medical grade, which is ‘undraftable.’ It might have been a ‘4’ medical grade, which means a guy does have an injury that could be a problem in the future, but he’s come back and played with it, so we have to give him an opportunity.”
Yes, Moses suffered a broken foot in late 2017 and a torn ACL in 2019. He had to overcome both injuries and play through some pain last season. As a result, Moses never developed to the level many expected when he walked onto campus as a 5-star recruit.
The potential is still there for Moses to develop into a big-time linebacker, though. The Jacksonville Jaguars already have Joe Schobert at middle linebacker, but the team can move on from the veteran next offseason and save $4.5 million toward the 2022 salary cap.
As Bleacher Report mentioned, linebacker continues to be a position of need outside of Myles Jack. Joe Schobert hasn’t been as dominant as the team hoped he’d be when it signed him, but if Moses can develop into a starting-caliber player (or even a rotational one) landing him on an undrafted contract would be a steal.
With 76 total tackles (six for loss) to go with a sack and interception in the 12 games he appeared in during the 2020 season, Moses was about on pace to replicate his effort from his 15 games in 2018, his last healthy season before this one. There’s a bit of risk involved with Moses for Jacksonville, but it will hope that, like in Jack’s case, those injury concerns were overblown.