Running back Ryan Moats
remembers the sequence of events quite vividly.
He had a run up the middle for five yards and thought to himself, "Okay, this is a good start."
Moats was called upon to help in pass protection and did just fine. Run routes. The same result.
But on his second carry of the game, the Eagles' preseason opener in Baltimore last August, everything changed for Moats. In the gamebook, it simply says "R. Moats right tackle to PHI 20 for -3 yards (P. Burgess)."
In reality, Moats fractured his ankle fibula when he was dragged down by Ravens rookie linebacker Prescott Burgess. He was placed on Injured Reserve and his season was over. After what he called his best training camp, Moats was forced to start from scratch.
"It's hard, man, you know. It's heartbreaking to do something like that when you're doing so well," said Moats after a recent workout at the NovaCare Complex. "I felt comfortable in the offense. I knew everything and on the field at the time I was doing really well."
The Eagles' third-round pick in 2005 got some playing time late in his rookie year and finished with 278 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns came on electrifying runs of 40 yards or more.
In 2006, it appeared as if Moats would be the perfect complement to Brian Westbrook. Moats could spell Westbrook, but the Eagles would still have a big-play threat that could score on any given play.
It didn't happen.
Moats never reached the end zone. In fact, he barely got the ball. In only eight games, Moats had 24 touches - 22 carries and a pair of kickoff returns. He doesn't know why he fell out of favor, but he admits that the pressure to change everything about his game from the way he carried the ball to his running style had an adverse effect on his play. Now, Moats is comfortable mixing what he's learned in the pros with the improvisational style that earned him WAC player of the year honors when he rushed for 1,774 yards and 18 touchdowns in his final year at Louisiana Tech.
"I think my style from college was very loose and it was all about instinct, just feeling it," said Moats. "When I got here I stopped feeling it because so much stuff was coming at me at one time, and I didn't know what to do. I was a young guy, but now I trust myself as a runner. If I make a mistake, I make a mistake. When you get here you feel like nobody makes mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. Even all the starters make mistakes. Once I realized that you can make a mistake and you'll be alright you can just keep going."
The Eagles piled on the pressure by using their third-round pick in 2007 on Penn State bulldozer Tony Hunt. However, Hunt didn't get on the field much as Correll Buckhalter was a more-than-capable backup to Westbrook.
The NFL Draft is less than two weeks away. The Eagles have a deep and talented corps of running backs, but Buckhalter and Moats are entering their contract year. Hunt has to make strides in his second season. Confident and in fantastic shape, tipping the scales at 210 pounds, Moats has realized that he can't control what decisions are made or how others perform. He can only go out there and compete. And he's ready to do just that.
"I don't know what's going to happen," said Moats. "All I can do is control what I put out. I'm just going to play football. I'm not worrying about who, or if I'm here or wherever. I'm just going to play and let my play do the talking. They drafted Tony Hunt (last year). What can I do about that? I went to training camp and I came to play. It's competition, and you can't be afraid of competition."
