In the latest scouting report, we look at Damontre Moore, a talented young pass-rusher from Texas A&M. Though he was at one time projected by many scouts as being a top-ten pick, Moore has slid down into the bottom half of the first round or early second round on most analysts' draft boards. Here is a look at the skills Moore brings to the table.
Pass Rush
When Moore speed rushes to the outside, he is usually incredibly quick off the ball owing to exceptional reaction time and above average explosiveness. That said, he isn’t always consistent and occasionally comes off the ball a little sluggishly. Moore displays good bend and body angles when attempting to take the corner against tackles and displays a powerful and well timed rip to knock the tackle’s hands away and get below him while closing the distance to his outside hip. Moore flattens out his angle to the quarterback well but doesn’t seem to have a final burst once he turns the corner to finish out the play as often as you’d like. Moore does seems to have problems keeping the tackle’s hands off of him during the initial phase of the speed rush, and as a result sometimes gets locked up with the tackle or washed down the line too far to effectively flatten out. Still, I would consider Moore’s speed rush to be very good. Due to his effective speed rush, Moore often finds tackles overextending themselves to protect the edge which he takes advantage of with an impressive assortment of counter moves. Moore displays an excellent counter spin move, suddenly planting his inside foot and rotating quickly once level with the quarterback, often providing him with a clear lane. Moore also showed a good counter toss, locking up with overextended tackles and using their momentum and lack of balance against them to throw them out of his way, opening his path to the quarterback.
When bull rushing, Moore drives into lineman a bit high, but fully extends and uses his reach to keep the opposing linemen’s hands off of him and create separation, which helps him achieve leverage and reduces the resistance the opposing lineman can produce. Moore also displayed a good variety of power to speed moves off his bull rush which included a decent push-pull move and a good inside swim, showing good timing in waiting for the offensive lineman to lunge forward in an attempt to slow down the initial bull rush and then quickly working his move to pass them.
Moore shows a very good inside rush as well, as he’s able to make himself skinny and reduce the surface area the tackle has to put his hands on. Tackles who didn’t move their feet well to stay in front of Moore would find him slipping right by them. Moore also showed a good outside to in style of rush where he would jab his feet as if initiating a speed rush to force the tackle to turn his shoulders outside, presenting a lane to the inside, and would then quickly rush back inside to create pressure.
Moore also shows himself to be extremely effective off of stunts. He has patience to wait for gaps in the line to develop and times his rush off of twists to fire into those exposed gaps. As with his inside moves Moore is very good at turning his shoulders to reduce the surface area blockers have to put their hands on him and can slip through gaps to get after the quarterback. Moore is also good at rushing out of zone coverage, timing his rush to ensure that no outlet receivers are in the exposed zone while keeping containment on the quarterback to ensure they don’t move around him and scramble into the vacated area.
It’s worth noting that Moore would not give up on rushes, using his length to stay extended and his good sense of balance to remain upright in traffic and keep the rush alive. Many of Moore’s sacks were second or third- effort plays where the lineman would defeat Moore’s initial move only to find him attempting to work another one right away or throw them off balance.
Moore seems comfortable in both a two point and three point stance, although he does seem slightly faster and to have a little bit better bend out of the three point stance.
Run Defense
As a run defender, Moore seems to struggle a bit. Although Moore extends well to create separation, he plays high against the run and seems unable to disengage from blockers, possibly owing to subpar hand skills. Moore often allows the offensive lineman to shield him from or wash him past run gaps and doesn’t show the ability to fight across the opposing lineman’s face to make tackles. Moore sometimes simply allows himself to be driven away from the run gap completely owing to his poor leverage. Moore is capable of exploding through the line to split blockers and make big tackles for loss in the backfield, though this is infrequent and doesn't make up for the deficiencies he commonly displays otherwise in run defense. Moore is also good at crashing down the line to make tackles from the backside, sometimes even in the backfield, and shows good angles in pursuit.
Moore seems to be a highly inconsistent tackler. He will sometimes show great form, wrapping the ball carrier and extending through their thighs and hips while driving his feet. Other times, Moore will go for very sloppy arm tackles that allow the ball carrier or quarterback to slip out of his grasp and move up field. Even when Moore wraps well and drives into the ball carrier, he sometimes goes a little high and allows more yardage than he should.
Coverage
When in zone coverage, Moore seems very comfortable. Moore will watch the quarterback’s eyes while being aware of opposing players that enter his zone, and will use this information to move laterally to squeeze or cut off passing lanes. Moore is a bit stiff moving side to side but has a good backpedal and seamlessly changes directions. Moore is also very adept at jamming tight ends and slot receivers off the line, using his impressive length to punch them and deny a clean release while shadowing them until they leave his zone and then quickly settling back in it.
In the rare instances Texas A&M asked Moore to perform man coverage, he seemed a little less comfortable. He struggled a few times on tape to trail faster tight ends and tended to allow a bit too much space. It wasn’t egregious, but Moore is clearly more comfortable in zone coverage.
Overall
Moore appears to be an exceptional pass rusher out of either a two or three point stance that uses his superior reaction time, skills and length to defeat linemen. Moore also seems to be a fairly poor run defender but has acceptable coverage abilities. I can see Moore fitting in to either a 3-4 or 4-3 but he’ll need to improve his leverage or strength levels to become a better run defender or he’ll find himself as a pass rush specialist instead of a three down player. I would rate Moore as a very late first rounder or possibly early second rounder because I’m not convinced he’ll ever be anything more than a great pass rusher. I know he’s been discussed as a possible pick for the Packers but I don’t think his value is quite high for pick #26.
Also, with Nick Perry entering the fold, I’m not sure he would represent a target in a “fit the need to the pick” kind of trade down scenario. He’s a very nice player, but at the moment I think he’d be a bit of an awkward fit for the Packers. Of course, you’re welcome to disagree and if his picked by the Packers I would be extremely excited at the prospect of bringing in another great pass rusher to pair with Matthews.
Other scouting profiles: C Brian Schwenke | DT Jesse Williams | DT Johnathan Hankins | DT Brandon Williams
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