Kicking Tires continues this week with some looks at more youthful free agent quarterbacks from around the NFL. Today we'll look at four year veteran Matt Moore, who has been a starting QB for the Carolina Panthers at various portions of his career.
Should Matt Moore be guy that Coach Shanahan brings into training camp? Maybe, it's certainly up for discussion. One thing is for sure, Matt Moore has had a very interesting football career.
Moore started his college career at UCLA and was supposed to reshirt his freshman year as Bruin. But unexpectedly Moore was forced to start due to injuries, and won his first ever start against Stanford. He ended up playing in 6 games that year and was the first UCLA true-freshman QB since Cade McNown in 1995. Moore has a tumultuous Sophomore year battling for the starting spot with Drew Olson. After that season he decided to leave UCLA and attend the College of the Canyons, where he didn't even play football and was also drafted by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, despite not play baseball since High School. Moore decided against baseball and moved on to Oregon State where he took over the reigns for two years. His final year as a Beaver he was an honorable mention Pac-10 performer and the Sun Bowl MVP.
Moore was not drafted out of college but signed as a UDFA with the Dallas Cowboys. In preseason he completed 21 of 28 passes and had a QB rating over 100. The Cowboys were expected to keep Moore on their practice squad but he was grabbed by the Carolina Panthers on the waiver wire.
Since being signed by the Panthers, Moore has bounced in and out of the starting role often. He has started 13 games in 3 years and has a record of 7-6. His career completion percentage is just about 58% and his QB rating is at 74. He'll be 27 in August and should be pretty mentality tough due to the fact he has been battling to be a starter since his Freshman year in college. Could Moore be a good fit for Mike Shanahan's offense?