Top 10 linebackers in the 2021 NFL Draft:

#10 NFL Draft Prospect: Dylan Moses (Alabama)

6’ 3”, 240 pounds; SR

Dylan Moses

Once a top-15 overall recruit, Dylan Moses originally committed to LSU but decided to join their arch-rivals in Tuscaloosa instead.

As all linebackers for the Crimson Tide, he has had to earn his stripes early on in special teams and as a rotational player. But in year two, he took over as a starter, recording 86 tackles, with ten of those in the opposing backfield and 3.5 sacks.

Unfortunately, he missed all of 2019 because of a knee injury. Without Moses, you saw the Alabama defense play at a much lower level than they usually do. Last season, Moses added another 76 tackles, with six of those for loss, three PBUs and his first interception since his freshman campaign.

When I look at Moses, I see a very patient run defender who keeps his shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage when working laterally on the front-side of zone plays. But he can take on linemen off combo-blocks with good extension, and his outside arm free, he allows a big hole to open up in between the linemen and the down-man.

Yet when he’s lined up on the backside with the edge man in contain, he has the speed to run around the tackle and chase the running back down from behind when an opportunity presents itself.

On gap-schemes like duo, he can be leveraged to one side behind the double-team because he has the sudden quickness in short areas to meet the ball-carrier on the other side. Moses also shows good lateral agility to work around pullers on power plays and initiate first contact.

Yet, when he sees something coming, he does not shy away from shooting the gap or running into bigger bodies either by cornering and getting his hands on the ball-carrier, to go along with his strong arms to drag them down from the side.

As a coverage-defender, he is a very easy mover. At times, he looks more like a big safety or designated dime backer, when you watch him glide around the field.

He has quick bursts to attach to the hip of tight-ends on crossing routes off play-action, where he gets pretty physical with them, or cover ground into the flats against quick dump-offs, and he does a nice job of taking away hooks and deep curls over the middle. Moreover, Moses is a very reliable tackler in space, who paces, puts his facemask on the ball-carrier and wraps up to great effect to hold check-downs to the back and scrambling quarterbacks to minimal yardage.

Overall, he has just 13 missed tackles on 192 career attempts. That’s why Nick Saban and company utilized him as a spy in certain matchups. As a blitzer, he comes in at a million miles per hour and has a great feel for anticipating the snap, running through several backs along the way. He was utilized to wrap around and as part of a lot of different pressure packages, where he showed good timing and ability to set up those cross blitzes.

While I do like the patience he displays in the run game, Moses does borders on too slow at times, and he can miss out on opportunities. While in other situations, he sometimes blindly commits to one key he sees, like following a tight-end on a sift block of a split-zone, because he expects the back to follow him, getting himself out of position and giving up a big gain, in the process.

If O-linemen get into his frame, Moses struggles to get away from them, at times even with big tight-ends. Against Missouri in the 2020 matchup early on, the TE literally drove him about ten yards into the backfield and put him on his butt.

I’m not sure how much I would trust Moses in manning against backs because of how grabby he can get in those situations. While he doesn’t shy away from banging into linemen as a blitzer, he rarely knocks them backwards, though.

Moses’ presence was immediately felt when he returned for Bama’s 2020 season-opener against Missouri, where he constantly showed up in the backfield.

At times, his tape can be rather underwhelming, and he doesn’t have as much production in the pass game as you would hope. But he is a highly dependable tackler, can cover plenty of ground and has proven to be a key piece for one of the best-coached defenses in the country.

I believe Moses is best suited to stay in a 3-4, where he has a strong nose in front of him to let him run around freely. He could be a core special team player.