Kenny Moore

Colts cornerback Kenny Moore is unhappy with his current contract, and the latest reporting on the matter suggested that negotiations towards a new deal have not gained much traction. Moore, who is due base salaries of $6.5MM and $6.795MM over the next two years, believes those figures are not reflective of his value to the club.

Specifically, as Zak Keefer of The Athletic tweets, Moore wants to be paid as an elite cornerback, not as an elite slot cornerback. “I want to play football … [I don’t] like the whole nickel slot corner thing,” Moore said. “I’m a corner at the end of the day. You guys watch the same games that we play.”

Moore’s current contract, signed in 2019, gave him $30MM in new money, which was a record for slot defenders. That deal was authorized after the former UDFA had accrued just two years of service time, and between that and the fact that the early payout gave Moore an opportunity to hit the open market before he turns 29 — to say nothing of the two years of club control that still remain — the Colts do not seem particularly inclined to offer many concessions.

On the other hand, Moore’s dissatisfaction is understandable. Because teams are deploying nickel packages more and more frequently, a team’s top slot DB is really a starter, and while no one has played more slot coverage snaps than Moore since 2018 — h/t Anthony Treash of Pro Football Focus — he has seen plenty of time outside the numbers and has proven adept at tackling in space and playing behind the line of scrimmage. He is also a bonafide playmaker, having notched eight interceptions over the last two seasons (including one pick-six), and he tallied 102 total tackles in 2021, which saw him earn his first Pro Bowl bid.

Still, there is a considerable gap between Moore’s $8.325MM average annual value and the AAVs enjoyed by the game’s elite boundary corners. Jaire Alexander‘s new contract with the Packers made him the first $21MM/year corner in NFL history — though that deal was comparatively light on guaranteed money — and there are ten CBs making at least $16.5MM per year. So even if the Colts agree to address Moore’s contract in some way, he probably should not expect to be catapulted into the top ten earners at the cornerback position.

Perhaps, as our Sam Robinson recently posited, the two sides can come together on some sort of incentive package for the 2022 campaign. And assuming Moore continues to perform at a high level, the Colts will probably be more serious about a lucrative extension next offseason, when Moore will be entering a platform year. The Valdosta State product did attend the team’s mandatory minicamp after skipping voluntary OTAs, so unless talks truly turn sour, it seems likely that he will appear for training camp as well.

Although two years remain on Kenny Moore‘s contract, the Colts have engaged in discussions with their disgruntled slot standout. Those conversations have not moved the needle.

Moore and the Colts have not made much progress on a resolution, Joel Erickson of the Indianapolis Star notes. Indianapolis’ front office has continued to communicate with Moore, with the sides having understandably differing viewpoints on this situation.

Named to the Pro Bowl following a season in which he played a career-high 97% of the Colts’ defensive snaps, Moore believes he has outplayed his current contract — a four-year, $33.3MM deal that represented a high-water mark for slot corners at the time of signing (2019). Moore, 26, has operated as one of the NFL’s best slot defenders since, but in playing 1,063 snaps, the former UDFA played outside as well and logged more defensive snaps than any Colt defender save for Bobby Okereke last season.

The Colts believe this was a fair contract, Erickson adds. By paying Moore early, the Colts both authorized a lucrative deal that replaced his league-minimum pact and gave him an opportunity to enter a contract year ahead of his age-28 season. However, the team gave Stephon Gilmore a two-year, $20MM pact this offseason. Moore’s AAV now sits 27th among corners.

The Division II product showed for the first week of Colts OTAs but stayed away last week. He reported to the team’s facility for this week’s minicamp, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, though it is not known if on-field participation is in the cards. The Colts are transitioning to a new defensive scheme, under DC Gus Bradley, and Moore should again be expected to play an every-down role.

Moore’s deal remains atop the salary hierarchy among pure slot corners, narrowly outflanking Taron Johnson‘s 2021 Bills extension. A broader argument can be made that slot defenders are underpaid, given the value and versatility the top-tier inside cover men provide. Moore’s camp may be making that case, but with two years left on his deal, the Colts will not give in easily.

A compromise could be reached, however. The Broncos gave Chris Harris an incentive package in the penultimate year of his second contract (2018) and handed the All-Decade slot corner a true raise in the final year of his deal. One of these solutions could be salvageable for Moore, who would only be 28 as a free agent in 2024. It will be interesting to see if the Colts hold the line here, refusing to do an extension until 2023, and if Moore would consider a hold-in measure absent a true extension by training camp.

Among the many notable absentees from ongoing OTAs is Colts cornerback Kenny Moore. As is the case with a number of other players skipping the voluntary program, he is doing so in the hopes of landing a more lucrative contract, as detailed by Joel A. Erickson of the Indy Star (Twitter link). 

Moore, 26, has experienced quite the upward career trajectory. Beginning his tenure in Indianapolis as a former UDFA in 2017, he quickly emerged as a starter and key contributor to the team’s secondary. As a result, he was given a four-year extension in 2019; the $30MM in new money he received as a result of the deal was a record for slot corners.

He still has two years remaining on that contract, with salaries of $6.5MM and $6.795MM. His cap hits over that span are $6.75MM and $7.545MM, which represent solid value given his level of play. Between Moore’s continued ascension – which included a Pro Bowl nod after a career year in 2021 – and the fact that there is no more guaranteed money left on his contract, though, he is now among the players attempting to leverage a new deal.

“Everything’s voluntary at this point,” Frank Reich said, via The Athletic’s Stephen Holder (subscription required). “You guys obviously know how we feel about Kenny. Every player’s got to make his own decision. We love Kenny. We’re going to continue to work hard and get the guys ready who are here. I’m glad he’s here. I know he didn’t get to work today. But I’m thankful he’s here and seeing everything that’s going on.”

As Erickson states, Moore is “upset and feels like he’s underpaid” relative to his contributions to the team. If he were to negotiate a new contract, it would represent another significant move made by the Colts with respect to their CB room. That said, the Colts are likely to resist negotiating with a player who has more than a year remaining on his contract, Holder adds, due to the precedent it would set. That is not an uncommon stance, though Moore is arguably the team’s most valuable defensive back.

The team traded away Rock Ya-Sin and signed Stephon Gilmore in free agency this offseason. The situation with Moore could now become more complicated than many would have expected.