Questions Still Surrounding New York Giants’ Damontre Moore

When his college career came to an end, Damontre Moore was being spoken about as a possible top-10 pick at the 2013 NFL Draft. He was a big and versatile player at Texas A&M, excelling at both outside linebacker and defensive end. He amassed 12.5 sacks in his final collegiate campaign, and it appeared that he was headed for possible stardom.

But a weak showing at the NFL Combine (only 12 reps on the 225-pound bench press and a 4.95, 40-yard dash) caused him to plummet down the draft boards and he remained there until the third round when the New York Giants took him with the 81st overall pick.

The Consensus All-American and First-team SEC player was a back up in his rookie year, and had only 11 tackles and zero sacks. This year, he still is looking for his first NFL start but has been productive with 21 tackles and three sacks.

By showing flashes of what made him such a highly regarded prospect at one time, Moore is at least getting the attention of the coaching staff. There are still questions that need to be answered concerning his growth, as Tom Coughlin elaborated on during his press conference on Wednesday, as reported by the team’s website.

“There are times, to be honest with you, during the week when you talk about confidence level, whether it’s assignment football or whatever. For whatever reason, it hasn’t been something that we thought he knows exactly what he’s doing and so on and so forth. The practices have to fulfill the idea that we can go ahead and play him under all kinds of circumstances is what we’d like to do, not just on third down.”

Because the Giants have had difficulty pressuring the opposing quarterback and stopping the run, it would be a huge boost if a player such as Moore can become a regular. As a team, they only have 19 total sacks and need improvements made in their defensive line. If Moore can show something in the last five games, perhaps he can be someone counted on in 2015.

Joe Pietaro is a New York Giants writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @MuscleSportMag, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.