Career Contextualization

Despite standing 5-7 and weighing 180 pounds, Rondale Moore (WR – ARI) was the big man on campus at Purdue University as soon as he arrived in West Lafayette, Indiana. As an 18-year-old freshman, Moore caught 114 passes for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns, ran 21 times for 213 yards and two touchdowns and returned kicks and punts for the Boilermakers. He fueled Purdue’s stunning 49-20 upset of No. 2-ranked Ohio State in October 2018 with 12 catches for 170 yards and two TDs. Moore was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Wide Receiver of the Year. He was also a consensus first-team All-American and earned the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player.

Moore began his sophomore season with an 11-124-1 receiving day against Nevada and a 13-220-1 stat line against Vanderbilt, then tore his hamstring in the Big Ten opener vs. Minnesota and missed the rest of the season. Moore initially opted to sit out his junior year after the Big Ten announced that the 2020 season would be postponed until spring 2021 due to COVID-19. He decided to play when the Big Ten switched to an abbreviated fall schedule, re-injured his left hamstring and missed the first three games of the season, then had 35-270-0 receiving in the other three games of a six-game schedule.

The Arizona Cardinals selected Moore in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, 49th overall. There was hope that Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who had a reputation of being an offensive mad scientist (though that reputation has crumbled of late) would be able to maximize Moore’s unique talents. Moore has sub-4.4. speed and recorded a 96th percentile burst score and 94th percentile agility score, per PlayerProfiler.com. Alas, Moore provided neither sustained fantasy relevance nor occasional outbursts of gadgety goodness during his rookie year. He finished 2021 with 54-435-1 receiving on 64 targets and added 18-76-0 rushing.