To say that Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has been impressed with the early production of second-year cornerback Riley Moss may be an understatement.
Moss basically redshirted as a rookie in the NFL after suffering an injury early in his first training camp which led to ultimately missing a small chunk of the 2023 season and playing virtually no cornerback. After the Broncos traded up for Moss in the 2023 NFL Draft, a lot of people turned sour on the pick and the decision to move up to get him when they didn't see him step in as the team was clearly struggling at the cornerback position.
But patience has paid off thus far for the Broncos and Moss, as the second-year player has turned in a couple of really encouraging performances.
And according to Sean Payton, some really good results overall.
Broncos CB Riley Moss praised by head coach Sean Payton
To say Sean Payton has been impressed by CB Riley Moss might be an understatement based on his response to this question pic.twitter.com/xP4L1eBbPt
— Sayre Bedinger (@SayreBedinger) September 21, 2024
Through his first two games this season, Moss has 15 total tackles, a tackle for loss, and has allowed a QB rating into his coverage of 89.9. With Pat Surtain II on the other side of the field, everybody expected Moss (or whoever was in that CB2 spot) to be heavily targeted at the start of the season, and that has certainly been the case.
Moss has been the 11th-most targeted cornerback in the NFL so far this season with 13 passes coming his direction. He's allowing just 7.2 yards per target so far this season, and one of the completions he allowed was a play in which he just barely missed knocking the ball down against the Seahawks to potentially give the Broncos another possession at the end of the game.
But, it wasn't meant to be.
Moss just missed knocking the ball down and understands that until he starts making more plays on the ball, teams are going to continue trying to pick on him.
Riley Moss is one of the most targeted CBs in the NFL so far this season.
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) September 21, 2024
He expected nothing different.
"It's going to continue to be that way until I prove them differently. So now it's prove them differently" pic.twitter.com/N2LiXfHlHX
It hasn't been an overly fun start of the season for the Denver Broncos overall, but the play of the defense has been very nice to see. The Broncos notched a turnover and a pair of safeties in the first half of their game against Seattle before limiting the Pittsburgh Steelers to just 13 points, six punts on seven possessions in the second half, and buckling down so far this year both on third down (under 33 percent allowed) and red zone appearances (33.3 percent allowed).
Moss is a big part of that, because while teams are "picking" on him, the results when the ball is being thrown his way have been mostly positive, and nobody seems more excited about it than the Broncos' head coach.