There are still some people who don’t pay attention to this player, so it’s time to give him his props. Kenny Moore was an undrafted free agent in 2017 and after being a roster cut before that season, the Indianapolis Colts rolled the dice on the 5’9″ cornerback from Valdosta, Georgia.
Coming in, Moore wasn’t someone Chris Ballard was looking at. Ballard said that Moore didn’t fit the prototypical size they like in their corners, but Ballard took the risk and so far, the risk has paid off.
Since coming to Indianapolis, Moore has solidified himself as the number two corner and the number one slot corner and in 2019, Ballard made Moore the highest-paid slot cornerback in the NFL.
While Moore was instrumental in the Colts defense turning around their slow performance at the beginning of the 2018 season, when he missed games in 2019, his loss was widely impactful.
In 2019, Moore missed five games and missed most of the Tennessee Titans game in Week 13. In games when Moore didn’t leave for an injury, he played at least 94% of the team’s defensive snaps.
The team’s production substantially drops off when Moore wasn’t in. Here are the Colts’ defensive splits when Moore was on and off the field.
| Split (Per Game) | Points | Passing Yards | Total Yards | Turnovers (total) |
| With Moore (10 games) | 20 | 212 | 326 | 11 |
| Without Moore (6 games) | 28 | 281 | 381 | 12 |
The numbers are staggering when Moore isn’t on the field. Both the “on” and “off” splits had some outliers, the Colts defense gave up 542 yards (467 passing) to Tampa Bay when Moore was out. The defense also allowed only 243 yards (119 passing) to the Tennessee Titans in Week 2.
While yes, there are a lot more factors that play into the defense not playing as well when Moore isn’t playing, but even when the majority of the starters are playing, like against Tampa Bay, the defense still gets torched.
Colts fans should be very thankful they have the best slot corner in the NFL on their defense.
