SIS Football Rookie Handbook Preview: TCU Safety Trevon Moehrig

In the coming weeks, we will be going position-by-position and previewing this year’s draft class. Before we get into the reports though, it’s important that we explain how our grading scale works. As a scouting staff, we use common terminology to grade every trait that we evaluate. We use a 1-9 scale with a 1 representing a “Reject” grade and a 9 meaning a “Rare” grade for whatever trait we are evaluating. We spend a lot of time in our internal Scout School making sure that our scales are calibrated with one another, and this common scale and set of language is a key aspect to ensuring that our evaluations are consistent (that…and cross-checks).

Additionally, for each position in the book, there are positional grading scales. As opposed to grading traits, these scales apply to stacking the final grades for each prospect. 

The final safety scale is as follows:

For this preview, we will look at TCU safety Trevon Moehrig.

Trevon Moehrig: Safety Rank 1 of 30  | Final Grade: 6.9

Report by Jordan Edwards

One Liner

Moehrig has the instincts, coverage versatility, and ball skills to be a high-end starter at the next level, though he’ll need to clean up some communication miscues and become more aggressive in the run game to ultimately hit his ceiling.

Overall

Trevon Moehrig lines up at free safety for TCU’s primary 2-high zone defense. He primarily plays as a deep post defender, but rolls to the slot as well. The 2020 Thorpe Award winner, Moehrig started 24 of 35 games in his career. He’s a solid and easy-moving athlete with good size, length, and quickness. He’s a good competitor who can be physical against the run and at the catch point as well. As a true freshman in 2018, Moehrig was recognized as the Special Teams Player of the Year by his teammates, which speaks to his leadership and toughness.

Pass Game

Moehrig is a solid three-level defender, but excels most in the back end as a deep coverage safety. His natural feel for the position and comfortability in coverage stands out on every play. He has good eyes and trusts his keys when reading the QB and watching route concepts play out in front of him. He processes well and can transition quickly to find and make a play on the football at the catch point. He has the quickness and athleticism to stay attached to quicker receivers, and the strength to engage and reroute bigger receiving threats downfield as well. 

Moehrig plays with good tempo and overall play speed, rarely letting receivers get on top of him to stretch the field vertically. As a deep safety, he can read and react to the quarterback’s eyes quickly and has the tracking ability and range to make a play on the ball. He’s comfortable in man coverage and has the ability to stay in phase vertically and also the play speed to run laterally. Moehrig has very good ball skills and shows the ability to get his hands on the ball to disrupt plays at the catch point. 

TCU hardly ever used him as a blitzer, which would take him away from his skills in coverage. There were a few communication miscues that led to some explosive plays in his area, but they were few and far between.

Run Game

Moehrig is an adequate and willing run defender, but will have his issues finding the ball from time to time. He is a productive tackler who is physical at the POA, though looks hesitant at times running downhill. 

He takes good angles and doesn’t over pursue, but he can lose track of the flow of the play causing him to react too slow. He is a good open-field tackler overall and hardly lets the ball carrier get past him once he makes contact.

Last Word

Moehrig projects to be a high-level starter at the free safety position. He can be scheme diverse with his ability to play as a lone deep safety and as a slot defender in man coverage. 

On 3rd downs, Moehrig can be used in a variety of different ways which can be valuable to defensive coordinators at the next level. He has the experience and skill set to be a special teams contributor as well.

Critical Factors

Positional Factors

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Advanced

Deep Dive

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Sports Info Solutions (SIS) brings you the third annual edition of The SIS Football Rookie Handbook, with scouting reports and statistical breakdowns on over 300 college football players who are likely to be drafted or signed as rookie free agents in 2021 (a glossary for the below stats can be found here). The book also includes unique and informative NFL team pages, research deep-dives by the SIS R&D team, articles on key football subjects (including injuries), and the NCAA version of their flagship football statistic, Total Points.