Cardinals rookie WR Rondale Moore using his humility as a strength
May 13, 2021, 6:46 PM | Updated: 6:59 pm
(Twitter Photo/@AZCardinals)
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver and second-round draft pick Rondale Moore isn’t one to overdo it after making a big play. You won’t see him boast about his game even when the opportunity warrants it.
Being the humble athlete that Moore is, it’s just not in his nature.
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He may not be the loudest or most exuberant voice on the gridiron, but the 5-foot-7, 181-pound wideout knows he belongs.
“I’m very confident as a player, but I think when I score touchdowns it’s important for me to show that I’ve been there before and it’s bigger than me,” Moore said Thursday. “I’d hate to do a crazy celebration and cost the team a penalty or whatever.
“So for me it’s just handling the ball to the ref and pointing to the sky to 1) show my faith and 2) to just show love to those who aren’t here with me today.”
Moore is hoping to use that humility to his advantage as he and the rest of the Cardinals’ 2021 NFL Draft class prepare for Friday’s rookie mini-camp.
For the wide receiver, all he can do is be the same athlete the Cardinals did their due diligence on during the draft process and be exactly who everyone says he is as a person and as a player.
That and retain as much knowledge possible before training camp.
“I’m never satisfied with one thing, maybe if I do it extremely well or if I don’t,” Moore said. “So for me it’s working on everything, whether that be catching jugs or going out there and getting repetition in routes, my pre-snap reads.
“Even just film study or like I said, just going around and speaking to everyone I can who’s had a piece of this offense and just figuring out what I can being a sponge.”
With Moore embarking on rookie mini-camp, he takes another step deeper into the NFL pool. Next up is learning from the likes of DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green and the rest of the Cardinals wide receivers.
It’s much more than just X’s and O’s for Moore, who is ready to pick the veterans’ brains from everything like pre-snap reads to how they got comfortable within head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s offense.
“I think it first starts with just having some humility about yourself and kinda giving them background information about who you are, what I want to accomplish and just figure out how they’ve been able to have so much success throughout their time in the NFL,” Moore said.
“Whether that be observing just by at practice or how they go about it every day or just being specific with the questions and talking about routes or concepts or coverages, whatever the case may be.”