As the Bengals schemed to overhaul Joe Burrow's backfield this offseason and started to stalk free agency, running backs coach Justin Hill first clicked to Colts running back Zack Moss's clips filed under pass protections
As usual, ever since he negotiated the neck of Chad Johnson's hardscrabble woods growing up in the Liberty City section of Miami, Moss's 24-7 diligence and 8-5 reliability zapped through the screen with each third down.
The Bengals inked him in free agency, and last week Hill saw the scouting report leap to life even before the Bengals started their joint practice against the team Moss came from. Players, coaches, and staffers of the Colts streamed across the field at various junctures to say hello to Moss and catch up on his new life in Cincinnati with wife Jessica and 14-month-old son Xavier.
"You notice that. Going into his fifth year in the league and he's had an impact on people he's been around," Hill says. "I talked to someone who said he's one of his favorite guys he's coached, and I can see why.
"He's a pro. He's seen every look, every front. He understands what we're trying to accomplish in the run game."
The Sept. 8 opener against the Patriots in Moss's Bengals debut unveils head coach Zac Taylor's new-age backfield. Moss's ability to spray the ball to all fields and Chase Brown's home-run speed is at the center of the club's transition from the Bell Cow Era of big backs to this season's judicious attack chaired by a committee of two.
"It's definitely going to be different," Moss says. "I think the league is kind of turning into that. The running back position has kind of taken a hit, but we do so much. Catching the ball, running the ball, blocking in the trenches, going outside in space. It's a business also. We do what we've got to do."
If there's ever a name to circle as one of the Bengals to surprise in 2024, it is the unassuming and unvarnished Moss. He may be coming off the best of his four previous NFL seasons with 794 yards on 4.3 yards per carry for Indianapolis, but he's here as much for those other things he does so quietly and well.
"Chase Brown is the home-run hitter. Zack is our Steady Eddie," says center Ted Karras.
"Steady," Hill says.
"Very capable, calm demeanor., freakish athlete," says Dameon Jones, his head coach at Hallandale High School. "Steady."
It was Jones who once looked at Moss's mother and told Cassandra Moss her son is so much like her. A pastor's daughter who spent three decades working for the Dade County Department of Corrections, Cassandra Moss immediately understood.
"A quiet storm," she says. "But there's a lot of strength inside."
Zack, in the middle of the five children she raised, has an idea where the reliability comes from.
"Being consistent. I saw it every day," Zack Moss says. "Showing up every day. Not complaining. Put that into football terms where you're hurting, tired, early mornings, and figuring out a way to be consistent and be the same person. She had five kids and kept the consistency. She was from that part of town. We had family around to keep us grounded and didn't run with the wrong crowd. To be able to be around family and keep close-knit helped me. It helped having two older siblings. I could stay a kid for a while."
Cassandra Moss, who says she likes to try new things and stay busy, started her work career in a city clerk's office in the early '80s but ended up in corrections until she retired about ten years ago. Her reliability has been called on again. Now she works seasonally to help Dade County run its elections.
"I love it. It's busy. We're back now, but I'm getting some time off to come up for the Monday Night game," she says of the Sept. 25 Ring of Honor game against Washington at Paycor Stadium. "Another new city I've never been to."
Working in corrections was tough, but Cassandra Moss says growing up with nine brothers may have been just as tough. Because she had a good arm and could fling it deep, they wanted her to play quarterback whenever they roughhoused a pickup game of football.
It turns out Zack Moss got more than his steadiness from his mother.
"They wanted me to throw to them all the time, but I was always cheering and running," Cassandra says. "I played a lot of sports in high school. I was always busy doing something."
The big thing was track. The 100, 200, and 400. She didn't win any medals until she took a slew of golds whenever the corrections department ran against female police officers from all over Florida.
That was the key, she thought, to raising her kids. Keep them as busy as she was.
"He grew up in the city. He saw everything," Dameon Jones says. "I know he saw homeless people, people die, gangs," but she had a plan.
"I kept him in the church," says Cassandra, whose dad shepherded a Liberty City church. "I grew up in church. I saw a lot of things, too, and it kept me away from things. I kept my kids in church."
Moss would reliably buy his mother a home in Hollywood, Fla., and when she snaps a selfie sitting on the patio. she lets him know that she's in her "happy place." Her son seems to have found his in Cincinnati, where he brings a religious commitment to his sport and new team, and, where there sounds like a new devotion to the run game.
"I think we've got more multiple sets and with our dynamic tight ends, we'll be able to get favorable looks," says Karras, the man in the middle of it. "We have two backs who get it … I'd love to give Joe a good run game. We've worked really hard from top to bottom. Guys understand the concept of what we want on each run. We definitely need to be more multiple on offense and (the coaches) have done a great job. We've got a good plan. We've got a good team. We had a good camp. I think we had a great camp."
The same thing Justin Hill saw from Moss on tape, Karras saw in camp.
"He's got great reads. He can read the hole very well. He's got the perfect style for the running game that we deploy," Karras says. "He's an excellent pass blocker, which we need out of our backs. We're a No.9 driven team. We'll throw the ball down the field. He does a fantastic job blocking. He brings a lot more than that, but that's a nice aspect of his game."
Besides Moss's pass protection, the other aspect of his game that has Hill so high on him is just how he fits the Bengals' heavy shot-gun scheme and how they can use him on all three downs.
"The scheme he came from in Indy and having a ton of success in the run game in the gun," Hill says. "He's played all three downs, caught the ball well out of the backfield, and held up in protection. He's a reliable first-, second-, and third-down back, which is a big bonus to us.
"We're going to be in the gun. We're going to be in jet protection and the backs have to hold up in protection in this offense and I'm very pleased with him there. He's really an instinctive runner. He's got a knack to turn nothing into something."
Growing up, Moss became aware of the exploits of Bengals Ring of Honor member Chad Johnson. The celebrations. The dances. The talking.
"The whole nine," Moss says. "He was one of one."
The careers of Johnson and fellow Miamians such as Frank Gore Sr., showed Moss he could leave and excel. But if Johnson used to give celebration tips to Joe Mixon, the predecessor for Moss and Chase Brown, he probably won't be tweeting Moss.
"You won't get much from me. We've got a lot of guys on this team that fill those roles," says Moss, who enthusiastically signed with what Taylor has never hesitated calling a pass-first team.
"I've never been one that's all about personal goals and personal stats. I think all those things come with success. We do what we need to do as a collective team. We've got a lot of talent on offense. A lot of guys who do a lot of really good things. My job is to be consistent in a role and do my role at a high level. Whatever comes with that, comes with that. But the main thing is always about winning."
He's been winning for a long time. Cassandra Moss remembers taking him to the Dade County youth fair when he was about seven. At the booth where you swing a hammer to see if you can send a ball of string to the top, Zack barely knew what he was doing.
"The man at the booth couldn't believe it. He said it was like he didn't try at all, and he still sent the thing to the top," says Cassandra Moss of her reliable son. "He possesses some strength inside."
