New Cardinals WR Moore has Strength to Cope with NFL Defenders

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rondale Moore is short, but he is also undeniably strong.

It is often said that good things come in small packages, and the Cardinals surely hope that is the case with wide receiver Rondale Moore, their second-round pick in this year’s draft.

Still, while Moore is around 5-foot-8, his “package” is quite sturdy. In fact, he’s been known to squat 600 pounds.

As general manager Steve Keim said Friday, “When you see his body type, you see a guy who's on the shorter end, but really thick and muscled up, really explosive, jumped 42 and a half inches, ran (the 40 in) 4.29, 6.63 cone, again, those numbers are off the charts. They are very similar, measurable-wise, height, weight and speed (to a) guy like (Kansas City’s) Tyreek Hill.”

An agreeing head coach Kliff Kingsbury said, “He's a smaller guy in stature, but he's really, really strong, and he's really, really explosive. So anytime he gets to that first step, it's hard to keep up with.”

Moore was succinct in describing himself, saying, “I’m just a tough ball player.”

What also impressed the Cardinals were many of the same attributes that sold the team on first-round pick Zaven Collins.

While Keim didn’t go so far to say that Moore was an Alpha Bird, he did say, “We had double A’s on him, which are character and football character. When you talk to him, he's a really articulate guy. He's serious. He's all about business. This guy, again, I'll go back to the mentality. He's a receiver that plays like a defensive player; he plays angry, he's competitive. To be around 5-8, 185 pounds and to be as successful as he has been, and to be able to win against bigger players in that conference and to be as physical as he is, you have to be a guy who loves the game and is as passionate as he is.

“So just our interactions with him, (receivers) coach (Shawn) Jefferson's interactions, we felt very confident that he was a guy that would fit in perfectly here.”