Mosby’s Big Plays Change Game, Perhaps His Fate

Defensive end Arron Mosby played a starring role as the Green Bay Packers crushed the Baltimore Ravens at Lambeau Field on Saturday.

Green Bay Packers DE Arron Mosby (53) celebrates with his teamates after intercepting a pass against the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday. / Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK

GREEN BAY, Wis. – At Sanger (Calif.) High School, Arron Mosby was a starter at receiver and a two-time all-conference cornerback.

During the Green Bay Packers’ 30-7 preseason victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday at Lambeau Field, Mosby’s defensive back roots came to the forefront with an interception against rookie quarterback Devin Leary.

As it turns out, that was only the defensive end’s second-biggest play of the day.

With the Ravens having crossed midfield midway through the second quarter, Leary dropped back to pass on second-and-4. Nobody bothered to block Mosby, who charged in untouched off Leary’s blind side. Mosby delivered the sack and strip. Safety Anthony Johnson won the race for the scoop, picking up the loose ball and going the final 24 yards for a touchdown that gave the Packers a 20-7 lead.

“Really just read my keys,” Mosby said in the back corner of the team’s secondary locker room. “The tackle went down and just kept going vertical and finished with a run-run-reach and try to get the strip-sack. The ball came out and tried to go get the scoop and score, but my teammate got it and he finished it off.”

Mosby did a well-deserved Lambeau Leap, anyway.

“You’ve got to jump pretty high,” he said. “I would say try to get a little speed because that Lambeau Leap’s pretty high.”

Late in the first half, the Ravens reached the Packers’ 33 when Mosby struck again. He dropped into coverage, just like he did as an outside linebacker in the old 3-4 scheme. Leary threw the pass to rookie tight end Qadir Ismail, but Mosby made a terrific catch for his first interception since 2019.

“The play was called, and we were actually surprised that they did call it,” Mosby said. “We didn’t really want to call too many plays like that in preseason, but they did call it, and the first thing that came into my head was, ‘I finally get to drop, go back to my linebacker and safety days that I had back in college.’

“I saw the keys, read the play, I dropped, and he was looking right at me. I was kind of surprised and he threw it right to me.”

As a senior at Fresno State in 2021, Mosby had six sacks, 15.5 tackles for losses and led the nation with six forced fumbles. Against Oregon in the season opener, he had a sack-strip-recovery for a touchdown.

While he didn’t score against the Ravens, getting a sack-strip and interception made this one of the best games of his life. However, his focus afterward was what it meant for the defense following a 27-2 loss at Denver last week.

“It really put a nail on it that that last preseason game, that wasn’t us,” Mosby said. “Our defense, that’s what our defense stands for. Just to put that nail in the coffin, that’s what our defense is here to do for the rest of the season.”

Now, a difficult 72 hours are ahead for Mosby. Between the end of the game at 3 p.m. on Saturday through 3 p.m. on Tuesday, the Packers must reduce their roster to 53 players.

He knows the drill. Mosby went undrafted in 2022 and spent his rookie season on the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad. When Carolina released him early in training camp in 2023, the Packers – who wanted him in 2022 – signed him off waivers. He spent last year on Green Bay’s practice squad, as well.

“This is going into my third year (and) I would say it finally paid off,” Mosby said. “Just stick to it. You never know how this NFL thing will go, so keep going forward. For any young guy or anybody who watches this, just keep pushing forward because eventually you’ll have a breakthrough.

“I would say this game, it wasn’t my breakthrough, but it was a great game for me. I’m happy about what I did, going forward, I’ve just got to stack it. Now I have a standard I have to reach or go above every game now.”

Mosby has had a quietly good training camp, but the defensive end group is loaded. Rashan Gary, Preston Smith, Lukas Van Ness and Kingsley Enagbare will command four spots. Maybe they’ll keep a fifth. If so, Brenton Cox has been the front-runner throughout training camp.

Two game-changing plays – no matter the situation and competition – could make for an interesting discussion for general manager Brian Gutekunst, coach Matt LaFleur and the personnel staff.

“I treated this game just like every game. Like it was roster cuts,” Mosby said. “When I came in my rookie year, it used to be after every preseason game there was someone getting cut. I know they changed the rule [to keep 90-man rosters through the end of the preseason], but I went into this game [thinking] it’s the last game, that you might not be able to play again or you never know. Just treat it like it’s my last day and it paid off great.”

Mosby, of course, is hoping this wasn’t his last day.

“It was a great day,” Mosby said. “Just to finish the preseason like I did, hopefully, it was enough to push me there, but we’re going to see how it goes.”

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