After striking out on former Philadelphia Eagles DT Milton Williams, the Carolina Panthers pivoted and wound up using the money they would have had to spend on Williams on several defensive upgrades. The biggest one was signing former Las Vegas Raiders safety Tre'Von Moehrig, who's coming off a major break-through type of season.
Moehrig appeared in all 17 games for the Raiders, posting two interceptions, 10 pass breakups and a career-high 104 combined tackles. All that good work he put on tape wound up landing him a three-year, $51 million contract with the Panthers, which amounted to their highest dollar amount for any outside free agent this year.
On the depth chart you'll find Moehrig at safety, but he's going to do much more than that. Here's how Moehrig describes his game, according to Kassidy Hill at the team website.
"I feel like just being able to line up at a bunch of different spots, and just being able to learn different techniques and different coverages and how to play in those spots and, just the whole versatility like I said of the whole defense so implementing that into the scheme, it's been really fun to be around."
Moehrig's snap counts with the Raiders from last season illustrate just how versatile he can be. According to Pro Football Focus, he put in 80 snaps at the line of scrimmage, 439 in the box, 361 at free safety, 191 in the slot and 28 at boundary cornerback.
Overall Moehrig should be a serious step up over what Carolina got from Jordan Fuller and Xavier Woods last season. If the Panthers can find him a decent partner in crime for the other safety spot their secondary unit may be in the running for most-improved in the league.
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