Several months before the draft, Tarvarius Moore wasn’t high on many team’s draft boards. While the cornerback had a solid senior season at Southern Mississippi, he served as mostly a backup in 2015. Prior to that, he was playing for Pearl River Community College.
As a result, the prospect wasn’t invited to the NFL draft combine. However, he went on to run 4.32-second 40-yard dash time at his school’s pro day, catching the eye of many NFL talent evaluators, including the 49ers.
“I remember talking about it,” Adam Peters, the 49ers vice president of player personnel, told Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. “We were all kind of p—- that he ran that fast because now we would have to take him a little higher.”
Barrows writes about the journey the 49ers took en route to selecting the defensive back with one of their third-round picks. While Moore is considered somewhat of a rookie sleeper considering his late rise up the rankings, it’s notable that several teams had focused in on the prospect in the days prior to the draft.
“I actually had a couple of teams call me after we picked him, and they said, ‘Hey, we really liked this guy. But we just didn’t have enough time to spend on him,’” Peters said. “Because I think a lot of teams really jumped on him after he had that pro day. And then they were kind of scrambling to catch up.”
Let’s take a look at some more notes from around the NFC…
- Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times believes receivers Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett, and Jaron Brown are locks to make the Seahawks roster. Outside of that trio, any of Seattle’s other wideouts could end up being cut. Brandon Marshall, Amara Darboh and David Moore seem to have the inside track on the final three spots, although Condotta says the team could cut bait with Marshall if he’s failed to recover from last year’s surgeries. Otherwise, the team is also rostering receivers Marcus Johnson, Tanner McEvoy, and Cyril Grayson.
- For what it’s worth, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll gushed about the potential of Moore, who was taken in the seventh round of the 2017 draft. “David Moore has been special for us,” Carroll told Condotta. “He’s a very, very good athlete. He came from a really small program (East Central in Oklahoma), and he wasn’t able to catch it all in stride until late in the season when we finally got him active the last week, but you can see the playmaking ability. We’re already trying to figure out ways to move him around so he can show off what he’s got. He doesn’t look like it, but he’s a real strong kid, probably 218 pounds, and he’s physical. We’re really excited to see him like we did in preseason last year with run after catch stuff. He’s had a very good camp, he has made a big jump—made the freshman-sophomore jump, and it’s exciting to see that.” Moore appeared in a single game for the Seahawks during his rookie campaign.
- Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press explores five Lions players who should outperform their contracts next season. Offensive guard Graham Glasgow ($809K) leads the list, followed by cornerback Darius Slay ($6.1MM), left tackle Taylor Decker ($2.9MM), defensive end Anthony Zettel ($660K), and wideout Kenny Golladay ($765K). The writer also opines that the Lions don’t have any bad contracts on the books.
- The latest bit of Jameis Winston news could end up being damaging to the Buccaneers quarterback.
What do you mean “could be damaging”. I’d say sexually assaulting a female a second time is pretty damaging. Not much “could” there.
This guy runs fast…he must be a great football player!
Also, love how of the 5 players expected to outperform their contracts, the dude picked 4 still on their rookie contracts. Even I probably could have predicted that