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A three-star recruit in 2019, Skyy Moore immediately contributed to Western Michigan, catching 51 passes for 802 yards and three touchdowns as a true freshman (13 games).
In five games of 2020, his per-week production was even better (25 catches, 388 yards, and three touchdowns). He more than doubled his production this past season in 12 games, with 94 receptions for 1283 yards and 10 TDs.
Skyy Moore's strengths
After primarily lining up in the slot in 2020, Moore partially took over as the X receiver in place of now-Seahawk D’Wayne Eskridge while still being used heavily as a gadget-type inside player. He presents an exciting body composition as a shorter receiver with a trunky lower body.
As you watch Moore, his burst off the line pops off the screen without much of a back-kick. Yet he can also get corners off balance with some hesitation and burst down the sideline on the perimeter, often jabbing inside quickly and then hitting another gear. He routinely showed foot quickness and active hand swipes to defeat press coverage and produce big plays through the air in 2021.
Moore gets his feet underneath his body when he breaks off on those sharp 90 degrees either way, but he’s also suddenly snapping his head when rolling off the outside on in-breakers, frequently after establishing the inside position with a shuffle release. He can sit in the chair and stop his momentum completely on hitches. Only five of his 31 targets in man-coverage last season were contested (16%).
Moore has those large, soft hands (north of ten inches) that almost swallow the ball. He reaches out at the last second on balls coming in over his head to keep defenders from swiping at it. He can high-point passes after pirouetting around and snatching them off the helmets of defenders trying to get into his frame as he has to leap up for them.
At the same time, he has the flexibility to pluck the ball off his shoelaces on crossing routes or slants while showing the toughness to hold onto it with the safety barreling in. He has only dropped six of 176 catchable passes in his career.
Once the ball is in his hands, Moore showcases that quick burst to get away from a trailing defender. There are some plays where you see the elusiveness, ducking underneath the initial defender, and then the physicality to drop the shoulder on somebody at the sideline at the end of it. Moore has tremendous contact balance, the ability to bounce off tackles, and the strength to drag someone along with him who’s wrapped around his legs.
Plus, he packs a mean stiff-arm that he’ll dish out against guys at the sideline. WMU threw him so many slants that he continued to fight for extra yardage after the catch. Moore led all draft-eligible receivers with 26 missed tackles forced this past season.
Without the ball, he delivers some actual blows to defenders in space as a move-blocker and is not looking to shield guys from the ball. The Broncos motioned him into tight splits or put him at the tip of bunches and had him seal off the safety at times. As the X in that system (particularly in two-high looks), Moore was coached to identify the bigger threat. If the corner didn’t jump inside, Skyy often transitioned to the safety or moved onto him after delivering a bump on the outside.
He was tasked with just holding the defense on the backside with screen fakes quite a bit because of the threat he presented as a YAC specialist.
Skyy Moore's weaknesses
I don’t believe Moore has that kind of elite explosiveness or long speed like the Seahawks' D’Wayne Eskridge. He also wasn’t asked to run overly intricate routes by the Western Michigan coaches, and you can notice a gear-down when he has to make sharper breaks for the most part.
A lot of Moore’s production came against DBs from the MAC. He was held to just two catches for 22 yards by Michigan, the toughest competition Western Michigan faced last season. And while you like the aggressiveness as a blocker, he can get a little overzealous and overshoot his targets instead of breaking down in space.
Skyy Moore's draft projection
This is another guy who put on a show at the NFL combine, running a 4.41 and being clocked by some teams with the fastest 10-yard split, being in the top-six in the three-cone and 20-yard shuttle, but more so just catching the ball naturally and looking smooth going through the on-field drills.
And despite coming in a couple of inches short of six feet, he measured in with the largest hands among the WR group at 10 ¼ inches. Now, I don’t see him as a de facto number one, or at least I can’t call him that yet because he hasn’t shown that ability to explode out of breaks in a more varied route tree, but I like his inside-out flexibility and play-making skills.
Final grade: Top-50
For more draft prospect breakdowns, positional rankings, and much more, head over to my page halilsrealfootballtalk.com and follow me on social media!
