How Broncos' Riley Moss went from 'undersized B-team kid' to NFL rookie (2024)

Jack Koerner can still remember the roar as his close friend and Iowa teammate circled the end zone in Kinnick Stadium. He can still feel the ground-shaking euphoria that occurred when Riley Moss returned an interception for a touchdown in the 2021 season opener against Indiana — his second pix six of the first half.

Koerner, a safety who was Moss’ teammate for three seasons at Iowa, had seen the Hawkeyes’ home stadium rumble before. But rarely like this.

“It was just electric,” he said. “That’s definitely one of my louder memories of the place.”

What Koerner remembers most about that defining game for Moss, though, is the flashback he had to all that came before it. As the jam-packed crowd showered Moss in adoration, Koerner thought of the times some of those same fans had not long before wished the young cornerback wasn’t on the field at all.

“I don’t think there’s a player in Iowa history who went from being so low in the fans’ minds to being one of their favorite Hawkeye football players of all time,” Koerner, who played last season for the San Antonio Brahmas of the XFL, said during a recent phone interview. “I think maybe it was after the Purdue game his freshman year that people were ready to ship him off to who knows where. They didn’t want to see him on the field ever again, especially as a corner. It’s crazy that by the end people revere him as one of their favorite players and have so many fond memories of him getting pick sixes, getting big interceptions, making big tackles. That’s just a true testament to his work ethic and the belief he had in himself that was way more important than what other people were thinking about him.”

Riley Moss 14
Indiana 6@R_moss5 | #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/kYVlgMeKfE

— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) September 5, 2021

The path to the NFL for Moss, for whom the Broncos traded a future third-round pick for the chance to select 83rd in last month’s draft, rarely seemed as easy as that celebratory September afternoon in 2021 would suggest. When he officially joins the Broncos for the team’s rookie minicamp this weekend, it will represent the start of a dream Moss always believed he could realize, even as others had doubts.

He was a two-star recruit out of Centennial High School in Ankeny, Iowa, an undersized defensive back who didn’t become a full-time varsity contributor until his junior year. Though his athletic gifts were apparent by the time he was in middle school, harnessing them took time. Iowa, Moss’ dream school, didn’t offer him a spot until after his senior football season had ended. And when the offer came, Moss found out he would need to pay his way through his first summer and fall semesters before eventually being put on a scholarship.

“Everyone looked at him and thought, ‘OK, when is he going to fail?’ because that’s the society we live in,” said Ryan Pezzetti, the co-head coach at Centennial who first began coaching Moss as an eighth-grader in track. “But he kept on making plays, kept on being consistent and kept on breaking up passes. We saw this as an eighth-grader, from being an undersized B-team kid to graduating from Iowa and getting ready for the draft. It’s the same kid with the same work ethic.”

What Pezzetti and his staff discovered early on with Moss, even as he was growing from a 5-foot-10, 150-pound sophom*ore into the 6-foot, 193-pound player who is now entering the NFL, is that he always had a magnetic attachment to the ball — and he knew what to do once he got it. He scored touchdowns as a receiver, punt returner and kick returner during his career at Centennial and intercepted five passes in two seasons as a starter. That would seem like a modest number if it weren’t for the fact quarterbacks rarely challenged him.

“His ball skills are phenomenal,” Pezzetti said. “He’s a multi-sport athlete, played basketball up to his sophom*ore year. He was a hurdler in track. Anything he wants to do, he can do. He always had the intangibles and the confidence in himself. It wasn’t a co*cky confidence. It was just, ‘I can do this. If I work hard enough at this, I can succeed at doing this.’”

To put it more accurately, Moss was a phenomenal hurdler in high school. He won gold in the 110-meter hurdles at the Drake Relays as a senior in 2018, and during a preliminary heat at the event, he ran a time of 13.85 seconds that stands as an all-time Iowa state record and was the third-fastest time run in the country that year.

Athletic feats like that were common for Moss in high school. Pezzetti still thinks about the play the cornerback made in the quarterfinals of the Iowa state playoffs in 2017, when Centennial faced a top-ranked Valley High School, led at quarterback by Rocky Lombardi, who would go on to play at Michigan State and then Northern Illinois. It was the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, and Valley, trailing 14-10, was driving deep into Centennial territory. Lombardi had just converted a fourth-and-10 to extend the drive, and now he was poised to finish the comeback.

“He had an open receiver on the outside, but Riley broke on the ball and made a play people can’t usually make,” Pezzetti said of Moss’ game-clinching interception, which sent Centennial to the state semifinals.

It didn’t take long for Iowa players and coaches to see how Moss’ unique athleticism could have an impact on the game. But first there was the matter of figuring out his position. Moss was put at safety to start his first training camp as a true freshman in 2018, which meant he was learning from Koerner.

“He came in as a raw, raw athlete. I remember in the first camp, (defensive coordinator Phil) Parker was trying to get him to play safety, and he was having a lot of trouble with the calls and all that,” Koerner said. “So coach Parker made it my project to tell him exactly what he needed to do. At first, I was like, ‘Man, why am I training this guy to do my job?’ Eventually, as the camp got about a third of the way through, Parker was like, ‘OK, this guy is a corner,’ and he became a corner.”

Koerner said the initial choice to play Moss at safety “seemed like a logical thing to do from an odds standpoint.” In other words, White cornerbacks aren’t exactly the norm at the highest level of college football, and none has started in the NFL since Jason Sehorn in 2002.

“But it was evident early on that he just had so many of the raw abilities and the quick-twitch stuff that make great corners,” Koerner said. “He’s long and fast, and he’s an aggressive guy, so I think he was able to put those worries to rest really soon. There’s always a couple guys who really flash when they come in as a freshman in camp, and he was definitely one of them.”

Due to injuries, Moss was pressed into action right away. In his first college start during the 2018 season, he had two interceptions in Iowa’s win over Minnesota. But struggles followed as Moss adjusted to Big Ten talent. In a game against Purdue early in the season, Moss was burned on three touchdown passes, including big plays of 82 and 41 yards.

“I was a young kid, I was 18 years old,” Moss told The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman at the time. “I was five months out of high school going against some pretty impressive dudes. It was very hard for me after that game to kind of deal with it because I’ve never had to deal with that in my life. After that, my teammates really helped me through it.”

Koerner, who had quickly formed a strong bond with Moss, reminded the freshman that he had already shown he could do the job. It was just a matter of continuing to grow. Parker, who coaches defensive backs in addition to his role as coordinator, showed Moss clips of some of the NFL’s best corners getting beat, a reminder that the response is far more important than the mistake.

For his part, Moss pledged he would simply never let what had happened against Purdue happen again.

“I’m sure that during those times he was feeling bad about himself and there was doubt and all that stuff, but he never brought it to the facility with him,” Koerner said. “That’s something that’s really commendable about him because usually there are guys who can’t overcome something like that, something that traumatic so early in a career.”

Moss steadily improved over the next two seasons. He had an interception against Purdue and another against Minnesota during the 2019 season, some of which he missed due to injury. He had two more interceptions during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, including one he returned 54 yards for a touchdown against Michigan State. Moss still gave up the occasional explosive play, but without the snowball effect that had been there during that game as a freshman, no wavering in confidence. Across his final two seasons at Iowa (2021 and 2022), Moss intercepted five more passes, deflected 15 attempts and forced two fumbles, improving his technique and impact as a tackler.

His final college tally: 11 interceptions, 26 pass breakups, 239 interception return yards and three defensive touchdowns.

The production was something the Broncos kept coming back to during the scouting process. Those aren’t numbers that can be built on flukes or lucky bounces. Moss had learned to put himself in the right place at the right time.

“I think a big part of that is film, and another part of that is being a football player,” Moss said. “There’s a happy medium between being a guy who watched a bunch of film and being smart but isn’t physically gifted. I think I’m a kid who’s decently smart but also has the physical traits to go out there and make plays. I think that’s why I was able to see so much success at Iowa.”

New obstacles await in the NFL. More speed. More physical receivers. Quarterbacks more equipped to exploit a defensive back’s slightest weakness. Moss will have adjustments to make, and they’ll begin with his first minicamp practices this weekend. He will get beat at some point in the coming days, weeks and months, as all cornerbacks do, rookies and veterans alike. But Moss’ slow-burn journey to the NFL has left him well equipped to turn the page when doubt threatens to cloud the picture.

“That comes down to his making as a guy,” Koerner said. “He’s a loud, big personality who doesn’t let anything knock him down. He’s confident in himself, and it’s allowed him to get to where he is.”

(Photo: Matthew Holst / Getty Images)

Nick Kosmider is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Denver Broncos. He previously covered the Denver Nuggets for The Athletic after spending five years at the Denver Post, where he covered the city’s professional sports scene. His other stops include The Arizona Republic and MLB.com. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickKosmider