Evan Moore

[Guest CardDawg]

I Like our new addition at Tightend, Evan Moore, but he doesn't run the middle seam route correct. He runs straight up field providing no angle to hit him in stride. Quinn in the Pittsburgh game threw a dart right at his backside that Moore blocked with his palm before securing it. Anderson almost completed a similar connection with him yesterday. This makes for a difficult throw, he needs to open his shoulders and get the defender sealed off better one way or another to provide an angle.

 

How much is Vickers emergence helping out of TE play? Vickers is plowing the way on run support allowing Moore to chip LB's and get loose. This is a dangerous scheme for LB's who like to bite. I would think that we should be running more play-action and dumping over the top to Moore more often.

 

[Guest CardDawg]

 

Browns have (Evan) Moore to hope for in 2010

By Steve Doerschuk

CantonRep.com staff writer

 

BEREA — Browns fans are so sick of waiting. Maybe they won’t have to.

 

Maybe the roster Mike Holmgren is inheriting has some hidden gems who will help the new president piece together a decent roster for 2010.

 

Some have shown up during the current two-game winning streak.

 

Who are they? Where did they come from?

 

There’s a long story behind each player in a cluster of surprises that have brought December to life in an otherwise sullen season.

 

This is the story of one of them.

 

Evan Moore was an invisible man when the Browns signed him to the practice squad Nov. 9. He had been an effective 6-foot-6 wide receiver at Stanford, but NFL scouts feared he was too slow to play wideout and too thin to play tight end.

 

He landed in the Packers’ camp, undrafted, but didn’t do any Lambeau leaping. In 2008 preseason games against the Bengals and 49ers, he caught two passes for 7 yards before hurting a knee. He went on injured reserve.

 

In Green Bay’s 2009 preseason opener, he played against the Browns but didn’t catch a pass. He appeared in the next three preseason games, making a grand total of three catches for 30 yards.

 

After he broke a hand in the preseason finale at Tennessee, the Packers could have put him on injured reserve again. It was cheaper to give him an injury settlement and release him. When they sent him home to California, he felt jilted.

 

“I wasn’t happy,” Moore said. “It gave me a little fuel for the future, no question.”

 

It didn’t give him a job. The hand had to heal. The phone had to ring.

 

“Basically, I was unemployed,” Moore said. “Just last month, I was in California, hanging out. Fortunately, I got picked up here.”

 

He was picked up as a practice-squad member. He was Captain Anonymous to Browns fans, but he didn’t forget where he came from.

 

He was a big man on campus at Stanford. He was such a good athlete in Brea, Calif., that Stanford’s football and basketball coaches agreed to share him. For two years, he was a wideout on the football team and a power forward on the basketball team.

 

“We had a head coaching change in both football and basketball the same year,” Moore said. “When the agreement isn’t there any more, it doesn’t really work.”

 

He and Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards, now with the Buffalo Bills, became roommates and best friends. They still talk a few times a week. There has been more to talk about lately.

 

Head Coach Eric Mangini was addressing the full squad at the team hotel Dec. 5 when he turned to Moore and said, “Evan, you’re playing tomorrow. Moore was elevated from the practice squad to the 53-man roster one day before a game against San Diego.

 

“There were a lot of thoughts going through my head,” Moore said. “It was something I’d worked for for so long.

 

“I was prepared, but ... playing in the NFL was one of my dreams. It was a big deal.”

 

A restless night passed. Game day came.

 

“I’m not going to lie,” Moore said. “I’m very much human. I was nervous.”

 

Early in the game, Brady Quinn whistled a pass over the middle. Some tall guy wearing No. 89 made a nice catch for 18 yards. The stadium announcer said his name, Evan Moore.

 

Evan who? He continued to introduce himself.

 

“Once I caught that first pass,” Moore said, “it all went away. It was boom boom. I don’t even remember it happening. You go like, ‘Wow, that was a good play,’ and it keeps moving.”

 

Moore wound up with six catches for 80 yards. He would have approached 100 yards had he not landed out of bounds while making a spectacular, one-handed grab in traffic.

 

Four days later, in a Thursday night game against Pittsburgh, Moore was getting open again. Quinn was throwing his way again but was off target in high winds and brutal cold. Moore still made two catches, one a 24-yarder that converted on a third-and-10.

 

“I’d never played in conditions like that,” Moore said.

 

He is proving he can play.

 

“We played against Evan in college,” said Derek Anderson, who will throw to Moore on Sunday against Oakland, since Quinn has gone on injured reserve. “I knew he could play. He catches the ball. He’s smart. Everybody wants those guys.”

 

There’s a practical side to Moore’s story. He has gone from no paycheck to making the NFL minimum for a second-year pro. His game checks for three weeks have added up to more than $60,000.

 

“While I love to be back playing football, it’s also a job,” Moore said. “It’s great money.”

 

Some day, Moore intends to go to law school. He’s not in a big hurry. This Browns thing has been kind of fun.

 

He has left his wide receiver days behind and is focused on getting bigger and stronger. That’s a must, because he’s still on the skinny side by NFL tight end standards. He’ll be much more valuable if he can add sufficient blocking to his knack for getting open and catching passes.

 

He imagines himself as a Cleveland Browns starter.

 

“I’m not there yet,” Moore said. “I’m not even close yet. Being in the system, getting comfortable ... I think I can do that one day. I do.”