Denver Broncos cornerback Riley Moss has one of the hardest jobs in football — lining up opposite of Pat Surtain II, the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year. The third-year corner has shown a lot of growth throughout his young career, as he’s been thrown into the fire as one of the most-targeted defensive backs in the league.
Heading into Denver’s Week 9 contest against the Las Vegas Raiders at the start of the month, the 63 targets Moss had faced were the most in the league, and yet, he had allowed the lowest completion percentage when targeted, at just 44.4%. He spoke in training camp about how he loves the challenge of being opposite of Surtain, and through the first 10 games of the season, he’s stepped up to the challenge (outside of his pass interference problem).
It didn’t all come at once for him either. He missed the start of his rookie season with a core injury, and he missed a key couple of games late in the 2024 season fighting another knee injury. He wasn’t able to have the same training camp that most rookies get in 2023, and had his rhythm disrupted in 2024 — only to be welcomed back to action by Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins and a dynamic Bengals offense. Higgins had 11 catches for 131 yards to go with a hat trick of touchdowns in that contest, so it’s safe to say that Moss didn’t have his best performance in that one, something he would agree with.
As a result, Moss received a lot of flak in the media and around the league for his performance. Overcoming the mental hurdle of that kind of criticism is one of the most valuable things he says he’s learned in his time in the NFL.
“It was brutal, but it made me better. It made me a better player. When you when you get beat like that and you have a bad day, there’s a lot of things that you can take away from it. And a big thing was handling the mental part of it. Getting beat up in in the media, and getting beat up by everyone and just really looking and and realizing that stuff really doesn’t matter,” Moss said on “Closed on Sundays,” a podcast hosted by Surtain and Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold.
Moss then went on to speak about how much he’s learned about the mental side of football through a year and a half as a starter in the league.
“You should be able to stay centered and stay consistent in the way you’re playing and your attitude. How you’re approaching everything has been the biggest thing that I’ve learned through a year and a half of starting.”
That type of mentality has been seen throughout the Broncos locker room as of late. Everyone seems to know how to tune out the noise and just focus on their craft on the field and the teammates and people they’re playing alongside on Sundays. Quarterback Bo Nix, who was critiqued heavily after last week’s win over the Raiders, said that he doesn’t have social media as he tunes the negativity out.
This Broncos team is 8-2, but hasn’t been receiving the respect that other two-loss teams in the league have been getting, primarily because of some lackluster performances on offense. While the NFL and the people around the league are looking for reasons to knock this team down, Moss’ big lesson of approaching Sunday’s game against the Chiefs with a level-headed attitude will be important for this group to silence the critics.
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