Silver Minings: Tre’von Moehrig played nearly every defensive snap

The Las Vegas Raiders may have struck gold with their 2021 second-round pick, safety Tre’von Moehrig.

Now that the season is over and all stats are final, ESPN’s Field Yates has been tweeting about certain standout players, and yesterday he shared an interesting and encouraging one about the Raiders’ rookie defensive back.

To add to Yates’ tweet, the only snaps that Moehrig missed this season came in Week 3 versus the Miami Dolphins, after he collided with cornerback Trayvon Mullen and had to enter concussion protocols. The rookie was able clear protocols and return to the game, so he essentially played in every snap he possibly could have.

And, as Yates pointed out, it wasn’t like Moehrig was just out on the field taking reps to get experience or because he was all the team had, he also played well this season and was an impact player on Las Vegas’ defense.

The TCU product finished the regular season as Pro Football Focus’ 23rd-highest-graded safety overall with a 73.3 grade and ranked 14th with a 77.7 coverage grade. He only allowed nine completions on 16 targets as the primary defender in coverage and managed to rack up six interceptions and pass breakups combined.

Among first-year defenders, he finished sixth in overall grade and third in coverage while also allowing the fourth-lowest completion percentage (56.3 percent). Not bad for a guy who was the 43rd player off the board last April.

Now part of the reason for that slide was the injury concern, which Yates notes. Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Moehrig injured his back while training for the NFL Draft and an MRI revealed some concerning issues. However, at least so far, that injury clearly hasn’t been an issue.

The former Horned Frog still has plenty of room for growth in his game, most notably working on those hands to turn some of those PBUs into interceptions, but there’s no doubt he had an excellent first season and is a building block for the Raiders’ defense moving forward.

In other Raiders links:

• Jim Harbaugh and Raiders hit a snag in negotiations?: Brandon Brown, who covers Michigan Football for Sports Illustrated, tweeted yesterday that the coach might return to Ann Arbor after talking with someone close to the Raiders and that Josh McDaniels heading to Las Vegas “has real legs”.
• Nate Hobbs cited for driving 110 mph: this comes less than a month after he was arrested on suspicion of DUI. This time, the rookie was on the freeway and was not arrested on a reckless driving charge but his car was towed, reportedly.
• Jim Caldwell declines Las Vegas interview: the former Colts and Lions head coach also turned down the Minnesota Vikings but is in the mix for the Chicago Bears’ and Jacksonville Jaguars’ openings. UPDATE: Caldwell released a statement on Twitter saying that the report he turned down the Raiders and Vikings isn’t true.
• Raiders add two more future/reserve contracts: wide receiver Javon Wims, who was on the team’s practice squad for the majority of the year, and William Sweet, who spent last season with the Atlanta Falcons.