Elijah Moore says he has learned from his mistakes.
New Browns receiver Elijah Moore has no regrets about request to be traded from Jets
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Elijah Moore, the Browns’ new wide receiver, has done some things.
Things he’s not particularly proud of, but things that have shaped him as he approaches the ripe old age of 23.
He’s fast on the field and fast off it.
Barely into his second NFL season, Moore requested a trade from the New York Jets last year. He was frustrated about a lack of targets and some ragged quarterback play by second-year franchise hopeful Zach Wilson.
It came to a head in the Jets’ sixth game, a convincing, 27-10 win over the Green Bay Packers that improved the Jets’ record to 4-2. Moore had only one target and it was erased by a penalty. During Jets practice the following week, Moore argued with offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. According to reporting by The Athletic after the season, Moore shouted to LaFleur “go [expletive] yourself,” and “you suck.”
Moore was made inactive for the next game and then requested a trade. At the NFL trade deadline, the Browns inquired but the Jets held firm in not honoring Moore’s request.
That changed on Wednesday. After signing their second wide receiver in free agency in two weeks – Kansas City’s Mecole Hardman following Green Bay’s Allen Lazard -- the Jets traded Moore to the Browns for the No. 42 overall draft pick in the second round, Cleveland’s highest pick. The Browns received the Jets’ third-round pick, No. 74, in return.
The mini-crisis Moore created in his second season with the Jets wasn’t his first foray into controversy.
His last season at Mississippi, Moore cost his team a game when he followed a late touchdown catch with a crude celebration in the end zone, mimicking a dog peeing. He drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the subsequent longer PAT attempt was missed. Ole Miss crushingly lost by a point to arch-rival Mississippi State.
“People go through things, and you have to learn from it,” Moore said at his Zoom conference introduction on Thursday. “I feel like I am the type of person that learns from my mistakes. We are all human.”
He said he would not take anything back from his tumultuous final year with the Jets.
“Would I have worded some things differently? Yes. But not take anything back. My heart was always in the right spot,” he said.
Speed is his game
Moore’s 4.35 40 clocking at the 2021 NFL Combine was the fourth-fastest among receivers. Future Brown Anthony Schwartz was No. 1 at 4.25. The difference between Moore and Schwartz is Moore is a natural football player who catches the ball.
Despite his limited targets in 2022 (65), he had only two drops for a drop percentage of 3.1 (3.1 drops per 100 targets). That ranked 32nd in the NFL last year, per profootballreference.com, in the company of Minnesota superstar Justin Jefferson (2.7) and Tampa Bay’s venerable Mike Evans 3.1.
(The Browns’ Amari Cooper had a drop rate last year of 9.1 based on 12 drops in 132 targets, second-most among NFL receivers, per the Website.)
Moore, the 34th overall pick of the 2021 draft, has not produced commensurate with that draft status through two years. He had 43 receptions for 538 yards and 5 touchdowns as a rookie. Those numbers plummeted to 37, 446, 1 his second season.
Moore, 5-10 and 178 yards, figures to line up most frequently in the slot position inside Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones, as the Browns increase their use of three-receiver formations to accommodate quarterback Deshaun Watson.
On several occasions during his Zoom interview, Moore said he is “super excited” to join Watson and Cooper in the second iteration of his young pro career. He said he has been studying Cooper “since I was little.”
“Probably I am most excited about that and Deshaun,” Moore said. “Being in the [receivers] room with a vet and someone who understands not just football but life, I am just eager to pick his brain.”
Moore is the fastest receiver on the team next to Schwartz, an Olympic-caliber sprinter at Auburn.
“I feel like [my speed] is why they brought me here,” Moore said. “I feel like I am more than just speed, but that is definitely a huge part of my game -- stretching the field. I am route runner similar to probably Coop but in my own body type. At the end of the day, you can’t do anything with something you can’t catch.
“I spoke to [Watson] yesterday. I am super-excited. He is a legit quarterback. He is someone who has been doing some amazing things around the league. He has respect from everybody around the league. They talk really highly about him here, and they believe in him. With him being my quarterback, I believe in him, too. I am grateful to be one of his guys.”
Time to prove it
The hidden beauty of this trade is that Moore has a lot to prove. He’ll enter the third year of his inexpensive rookie four-year contract (with no fifth-year option). If he wants to get a big payday in his fifth season, he has to establish himself as a play-maker.
“I am not going to lie,” Moore said. “Every day I wake up, I have something to prove. I am not a big dude. Someone is always going to have something to say. I grew up that way. It never stopped me. I am just with whatever. Whatever the narrative or if they believe I am not good at it now, I trust I am going to work hard to be good at it. That is the type of mindset I take towards just getting better and life.”
Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for, right? Since Moore asked for a trade, the Jets replaced LeFleur, his foil, as offensive coordinator. And now Wilson is on the verge of being replaced by future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. The Jets will be hyped as a Super Bowl contender in 2023. They are flying high in March.
I asked Moore if those events changed his stance about being traded by the Jets.
“All I know is that I am a Cleveland Brown, and I am super excited to be here,” Moore said.
