Play like a Raven: Trevon Moehrig

In this series of posts, I explore the prospects in this year’s class that play like a Raven – the guys I think could have a red star against their name on the draft board in the Castle.

The great UCLA Basketball coach, John Wooden, placed something called competitive greatness at the summit of his pyramid of requirements for being a champion player. It sounds grand but really, it just meant being at your best when your best is required. If you think on it, most of the great champions across most sports, the ones we remember most vividly, have delivered when it was all on the line. We judge our sporting heroes by this yardstick most frequently. The January version of Joe Flacco will be remembered as a Raven great because of exactly this.

Remember, remember the 3rd February,

The greatest Superbowl QB performance and power outage plot,

I know of no reason, why Playoff Joe, should ever be forgot.

But it’s more the clutch moments amidst a sea of elite performance I remember from our more consistently great players. One of my favourite of all time has to be the play on 4th and 2 from Ray Lewis against the San Diego Chargers back in 2009. The Chargers were on the 15 yard line, down 5 with 37 seconds to go. They went for it on 4th and 2 with the game on line and Darren Sproles in the backfield. With Sproles in, most would have expected a pass – keeping the ball in Rivers’ hands, but not Ray. He knifes through the line of scrimmage, timing his pursuit to perfection, nailing Sproles in the blink of an eye and ending the game.

Now I’m not sure that being at your best when your best is required is on the list of traits for a red star; but it should be. And I’m sure that the Ravens look for smart players on defense when defining what it is to play like a Raven. The kind of football intelligence Lewis showed on that play, and that his running mates showed day in and day out for years, is the kind I’m sure the front office always looks for.

So that brings me to Trevon Moehrig – for me, one of the smartest players in this year’s class. And the first in this series reviewing potential red stars.

Let’s start with the things that make him, for me, a red star in Baltimore; number one being football intelligence. The kid has smarts for days and is an organiser on the back-end. He will instantly recognise route combinations, something he can only have gleaned from thorough tape study of the opponent, which allows him to break on the ball with timing and anticipation. He also shows an ability to sit back in coverage and read the quarterback’s eyes before breaking on the ball and making a play – he is around the football and makes plays when it counts consistently. He takes responsibility. And not satisfied with just being good himself, he organises his teammates so that the unit is good, switching assignments with other members of the defensive backfield to eliminate the greatest threat. Always putting the team first.

You know the Ravens look for toughness and this kid has that too. Sometimes college players put toughness on for show – laying big hits in traffic when the ball carrier doesn’t expect it but then whiffing on an open-field tackle that results in a big gain. You don’t see any of that with Trevon Moehrig, he will do the dirty work and make the tough plays as well as be the tough guy. I particularly like his technique when he breaks down and makes form tackles against elusive players with acres of space to work with. He will flow to the ball carrier on the bubble or the screen pass out of the backfield and make hard steps with his outside foot followed by small adjustments with his inside foot, readying himself to explode off either to make a play in any direction. He gave up very few yards after the catch, just 77 on the season this year, and the tape more than backs that statistical reality up with hard evidence of a sure tackler who can hit and shows absolutely no hesitation of sticking his nose in where it isn’t welcome – playing the run hard when he reads and reacts to it.

If you want to see his pure toughness and nasty though, just queue up his tape from the West Virginia game this year, navigate to 11:45 to go in the 3rd quarter and the 1st and 10 from the TCU 21 yard line. You’ll see him blow up a wide receiver block just for the sake of it.

The things that won’t necessarily show up on the Ravens list for a red star but that you can also find to like about him – his length and athleticism – he has all the speed he will need and flashes elite explosion, flying to the ball carrier and underneath potential blocks to make a play. He looks like he is shot out of a cannon at times. I also like how he can cover man-to-man, especially downfield where he gets his head turned at the right time and effectively tracks the ball before making a play. His smarts, specifically his route recognition prowess help him here too.

He does have some areas to work on as every player does – I’d like to see him more consistently take angles that don’t take him out of the play, which you can see on tape. And he can be a little high and tight in his technique in coverage, not unusual for a safety of his length but noteworthy. You can see plenty of positives in his movement skills, he uses a real economy of movement when he breaks on the ball from his backpedal, with no false steps and precision. But you can see him exposed on some lateral moves when locked up in man coverage. If part of his value is his ability to cover different shapes and sizes at the next level with his length and athleticism, you’d like to see him move this part of his game closer to flawless.

But overthinking is not required here, the flaws for me are nit-picks and what he lacks slightly in technique he more than makes up for in anticipation and instincts. I think the Ravens are looking for a playmaker on the back end in this draft – a guy that can come cheap for a few years on a rookie deal and who can grow into a big role. A chess piece too most likely, that they can move around and can handle more than one role. He will have to be the pick at 27 if we are to have him, but I can see him being the type of value play the Ravens so consistently make at the end of round one and he would make a seamless transition from Horned Frog to Raven purple.