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David Levine -> RE: General Vikes Talk (8/31/2022 1:17:50 PM)
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I'd add Randy Moss' kid to the PS. Was waived by the Bengals yesterday.
As a redshirt junior, Moss finished the season with 47 receptions for 570 receiving yards, both school records for tight ends, and four touchdowns. Moss caught four passes for 99 yards and scored a touchdown on a 62-yard reception against Oklahoma in the 2019 Peach Bowl. In the 2020 National Championship Game, he scored two touchdowns on five receptions for 36 yards. His two scores allowed quarterback and 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow to tie and break the NCAA single season record for touchdown passes.
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Family lineage and brand awareness playing with Joe Burrow and LSU make it easy to overshoot expectations for Moss as a dynamic pass-catcher, but tape study shows he's actually more skilled as a run blocker. He has great hands and good body control, but he's an average athlete who benefited from rub routes and off coverage to find plenty of open-window catches. He will get after it as a run blocker, using above-average technique and an impressive ability to strain and sustain against bigger opponents. He could struggle to uncover against tight man, but his hybrid TE/H-back versatility and run-blocking prowess could lock him into a TE3 role.
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[LSU’s Thaddeus Moss is a compact, powerfully built tight end prospect with a very good thickness in his upper and lower body. Moss lined up at a variety of positions in the LSU offense, playing out of tight end, wide receiver, slot receiver, and H-back alignments. He is primarily a blocker in LSU’s offense, and shows very good technique executing his blocks. Moss plays with good knee bend and pad level to maximize his natural leverage and play strength. He routinely fires his punch into defenders’ chest plates to secure inside leverage and gain control. He also shows very good play strength in sustaining his blocks through the whistle, with the ability to create movement at the line of scrimmage. Moss has very good competitive toughness as a blocker, standing up against bigger linemen and giving a second-effort to re-anchor against power rushes when necessary.
Moss shows a good understanding of blocking assignments as a pass protector and can be relied upon to block rush linebackers. He also does a good job of executing chip blocks when he releases into routes.
Moss has good, reliable hands as a pass catcher. He presents a good target for his quarterback, tracks the ball well, and extends to pluck the ball out of the air away from his frame. He also shows very good body control to contort and make difficult catches or secure the catch going out of bounds. Moss’ leverage and play strength make his routes difficult for most coverage players to disrupt, and he can be difficult for lone defenders to tackle in space.
Moss’ greatest weakness is his lack of athleticism. He shows definite lower-body stiffness and a lack of quickness and agility which hamper his route running. Moss also lacks speed on vertical routes or in the open field. Suffered a broken foot (fifth metatarsal) in 2018 that required a pair of surgeries.
Thaddeus Moss projects as back-up tight end for most teams, but could be a number two — and second starting — tight end for a team that uses a scheme based on 12-personnel packages.
Moss’ greatest value will likely be for teams that feature run-heavy or vertical offenses. He is a very good blocker in both the running and passing game, and a capable-enough receiver to bring value as a check-down option. Moss’ lack of athleticism will prevent him from being a true mis-match, and that will hurt his value in the eyes of many offenses. However, his blocking ability absolutely has a place in the modern NFL. If he can become adept at finding voids in coverage, Moss’ hands and body control should allow him to become a reliable chain-mover in the passing game.
Teams that have an “H-Back” position in their offense could be particularly interested in Moss. His ability to line up in the backfield as well as both a detached and in-line tight end could allow offenses to show multiple looks out of similar personnel packages./i]
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