The 2026 season is crucial for a lot of individual players on the Denver Broncos, but perhaps no one stands to benefit more financially from a big season than cornerback Riley Moss.
Top cornerbacks on the open market are receiving at least $18 million per season in free agency, and the market is only continuing to grow.
Moss is a fascinating player because he's been the most targeted cornerback in the NFL over the past two seasons (221), and the results have been a mixed bag of awesome and maddening. He tied for the NFL lead last season with 19 passes broken up, but also led the league in penalty yardage.
The high variance of results on such a massive number of targets has caused a split of opinions on Moss that fall on extreme ends of both sides of the spectrum. He can put any negative talk to rest by doing more of one thing in 2026: Turn more of those targets into interceptions.
More interceptions for Riley Moss would be a game-changer for Broncos defense in 2026
Not only does Riley Moss stand to benefit from picking off more passes in 2026, but that could be a catalyst for a major game-changer for Denver's defense as a whole.
The Broncos were 26th in the NFL with just 14 turnovers forced, and only 13 of those were by the defense. Jonah Elliss forced a fumble on kickoff coverage against the Chargers early in the season. We saw the team rack up turnovers in the playoff win against Buffalo like their lives depended on it, and that's something they need to build on in 2026.
But Moss, in particular, has a chance to really shift that narrative this season.
When you are getting targeted an average of 110 times per season, you're going to get a lot of chances to make plays on the ball. Back at the college level, Moss was a magnet for the football as well. He had 11 interceptions and 26 passes defensed in his time with the Hawkeyes, but he has just two interceptions in his two years as a starter for the Broncos.
Even though Moss deserves a ton of credit for breaking up 19 passes last season, having just one interception every 110 passes thrown your direction is not going to exactly deter teams from throwing at you.
If Moss can figure out how to clear that proverbial hurdle and pick off more passes this season, it will have a domino effect that can't be overstated. Especially if he can do it early on in the year, and maybe start off the season with a couple of interceptions, Moss making more plays on the ball will force teams to try to throw it inside at Ja'Quan McMillian even more, or possibly even test Pat Surtain a little bit more often.
And of course, takeaways give more possessions and short fields to your offense. That is precisely what was missing from last year's team that ultimately resulted in the Broncos dealing with so many more one-score games than they probably should have been.
It's not like it's all Moss's fault, but he's the guy getting targeted the most, and he's also the guy who developed a reputation for being grabby downfield, generating more flags thrown than was probably even necessary or fair. But he has to change that narrative by getting his head around and making quarterbacks pay for constantly testing him, especially deep downfield.
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