If you’re looking for a single individual on the Denver Broncos defense who has seen their game picked apart more than any other, hands down it’s third year starting cornerback Riley Moss.
Moss has been put on an island at outside cornerback since the moment he hopped into the starting lineup last season, and more often than not he’s thrived under that scrutiny. It’s a much different task than playing in the bubble wrap of the nickel spot, like fellow Iowa product and Philadelphia Eagles star Cooper DeJean or Broncos rookie and 2025 first round pick Jahdae Barron.
In the last month, Moss has been counted on to go heads up on the opposing team’s No. 1 wide receiver with injured NFL Defensive Player Patrick Surtain II out of the lineup the last 3 games.
Even with all that pressure — and essentially every quarterback he faces trying to expose him — Moss has been aces. He also has one incredible stat to hang his hat on through 11 games.
“Broncos CB Riley Moss has yet to allow a touchdown across a league-high 43 man coverage targets this season, per Next Gen Stats,” Mile High Huddle’s Zack Kelberman wrote on his official X account on November 26. “No other defender in the NFL has faced as many such targets without surrendering a TD.”
The Broncos, winners of 8 consecutive games, take their 9-2 record on the road to face the Washington Commanders in Week 13.
Surtain: ‘They Racial Profiling My Dog’
If there’s one knock on Moss, it’s that he gets called for pass interference a lot — he leads the NFL with 7 defensive pass interference calls.
As anyone who has watched the Broncos play this year can attest, a lot of those PI calls have been fugazi. This was hilariously pointed out by Surtain, who hasn’t forgotten Moss was the first white cornerback to start an NFL game in 22 years.
I ain’t gonna lie, II think they racial profiling my dog,” Surtain joked on the Closed on Sundays With Pat and Terrion podcast. “They calling all these flags on my boy … I ain’t gonna lie, these flags is egregious. He had a rep against CeeDee Lamb where he played the ball, where he was in perfect position, and he still got a flag.”
Moss Could Be in Line for Big Payday Soon
Moss was a third round pick (No. 83 overall) by the Broncos in the 2023 NFL draft and is in the third season of his 4-year, $5.44 million contract.
With the Broncos on a wild spending spree at the moment, it will be interesting to see what their approach to re-signing Moss might be. The smartest thing to do would be for the Broncos to try and get Moss to sign something in the range of a 3-year, $45 million contract extension after this season.
It’s the same approach the Broncos took with Surtain, a 2021 first round pick, when they signed him to a 4-year, $96 million contract extension in September 2024.
By Denver not waiting another year, which a good number of NFL teams do just as a hard and fast rule, it saved them approximately $24 million. That’s the difference between Surtain’s deal and the 4-year, $120.4 million contract signed by Indianapolis Colts cornerback Sauce Gardner in July of this year.
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