The Denver Broncos have the most talented secondary in the NFL, and cornerback Riley Moss is a reason for that. Many have said that Moss has one of the toughest jobs in the NFL, and that is honestly accurate. He plays across from the best defensive back in the NFL and has seen a ton of passes thrown his way.
However, Moss has largely held up quite well. According to Pro Football Reference, Moss has allowed an opposing passer rating of just 82.7 and an opposing completion percentage of 48.6%. At times, though, it does seem like Moss is out of position, and that was the case during their win over the Eagles.
Riley Moss is still a very young player in this league, a defensive coordinator Vance Joseph recently dropped a truth bomb about the third-year player.
Vance Joseph drops truth bomb about CB Riley Moss
Here is Vance Joseph talking about third-year CB Riley Moss on Thursday:
“Riley is so competitive; sometimes he doesn’t play to the plan early,” Joseph said Thursday. “That’s my problem with Riley. But Riley competes against anyone we put him on. That’s Riley’s best trait. He’s so strong and so mentally strong that he doesn’t flinch.”
Joseph said Moss loves playing one-on-one so much and wants every matchup that sometimes he doesn’t do a good enough job of putting himself in good positions and makes life harder on himself than it needs to be.
“He has to understand what’s happening around him,” Joseph said. “Obviously, Pat’s opposite of him, so he’s getting the most targets. It’s my job to educate him more on certain calls to kind of hide him a little bit and not just go press or give up fades and challenge fades all day. That’s tough to do that in this league.
“As he grows as a player and I help him more with calls — he has to understand how to play the calls and how to work the game plan to his benefit, and that’s an ongoing process. He’s getting better each week. Hopefully this week he can improve in that area.”
Vance Joseph does offer some praise here, but he's quite candid in talking about what the CB struggles with, and it makes sense. Riley Moss' competitiveness is clearly off the charts, and based on what Joseph says, it seems to pull him away from the gameplan at times.
Again, he's got one of the toughest jobs in the NFL, so it's no surprise that he'd want to prove people wrong and play his tail off. That third and long completion in the first half that Moss gave up was an easy example of his competitiveness getting the best of him.
Vance Joseph is one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL, so you get the sense that Moss is going to reach his ceiling - whatever that may be in the NFL, as long as Joseph is calling the shots on defense.