Appalachian State’s Jalin Moore tells NFL why ‘I’ve still got that dog in me’
Jalin Moore has no delusions about his status with the NFL: They owe him nothing approaching the draft in three weeks, and that includes patience.
“The NFL is not like college. They don’t care,” what you’ve been through, the former Appalachian State running back said. “If you do good, then good for you. If you did bad, then we won’t (draft) you.”
Moore, who starred at Shelby’s Crest High, had a catastrophic injury during an October game against Arkansas State. He fractured and dislocated his right ankle. Rehabilitation lasted so long that he canceled his invitation to the Senior Bowl in January and couldn’t participate in drills at the NFL scouting combine. He was running out of windows to leave any sort of impression before the draft commences April 25.
Appalachian State’s pro day Thursday was one of the last in college football this spring, primarily to maximize any chance Moore could successfully participate. Moore ran agility drills and pass patterns at the Mountaineers’ indoor practice facility for a couple of dozen NFL scouts and coaches. He then met for several hours with various coaches.
The NFL knows all about Moore’s 3,570 rushing yards and 33 touchdowns. The questions Thursday centered on the six months since he last carried a football.
“They wanted to know how I’m attacking it. Some coaches wanted to know how I’m doing mentally,” Moore said. “Hopefully, those questions will slim down now that they’ve seen me move.”
No sprint
Moore couldn’t do everything on Thursday’s agenda: He didn’t run the 40-yard dash, a standard measure for football readiness. He said that’s because he didn’t have prep time to train specifically to sprint once he was cleared physically. He felt it was more important to show his ankle was strong enough to make cuts and to flow through pass patterns.
Maybe expectations were low because his injury was so severe, but Moore said what he heard from scouts and coaches was consistently positive.
“One of the coaches said he thought I’d be more limpy,” Moore recalled.
There was cause to assume the worst. Moore’s was one of those injuries where television announcers warned viewers not to watch the replay if they’re squeamish. Football is full of violent collisions, but this was more like a car wreck.
“Not let it break me,” Moore said of the ensuing months. “I was used to seeing injuries like that on TV (where you think), ‘That’s crazy stuff! I just hope he comes back from that!’
“Now I’m that person, where other people were praying for me.”
Testing limits
Moore wasn’t widely recruited out of high school, so he’s never been prone to self-entitlement. He’s known for being hard on himself, a worker willing to test limitations. This injury forced him to be more self-aware, to listen when his body screamed, “enough!”
The therapists who oversaw his recovery required communication unencumbered by tough-guy bravado.
“I had to be open and honest about how I feel. Not try to be tough. They built the workouts around how I felt” each day, Moore described.
“I got kind of iffy with it before the combine. Where I got timid (because) it hurt, and I said, ‘Let’s go less hard today.’ After the combine, it was all go. Time is running out.”
There is no expectation now about when Moore will be drafted. He is assuring teams he is close to normal and believes he will be fully back for minicamp, the first physical activity after the draft.
He hopes the message he sent Thursday is stuff happens, and he doesn’t surrender to circumstance:
“This isn’t the last time something bad will happen.” Moore concluded. “I’ve still got that dog in me.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Appalachian State’s Jalin Moore tells NFL why ‘I’ve still got that dog in me’."
