Zack Moss pushes through hamstring injury at NFL Combine
By Matt Conner
Running back prospect Zack Moss, who has met with the Kansas City Chiefs, pushed through a hamstring injury to still work out.
The numbers might not look all that impressive compared to his peers, but Zack Moss showed something to the NFL’s 32 franchises that others were not able to display from the 2020 NFL Combine in Indianapolis.
Moss, who weighed in at 5’9, 223 lbs., showed a grit and toughness as he pushed through a hamstring injury to go ahead and run through the Combine’s drills in front of scouts and general managers looking to shift their draft boards accordingly.
Utah RB Zack Moss tweaked his hamstring during his vertical jump but decided to push through the 40 and drills anyway tonight. Moss will run again at his Pro Day on March 26th.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 29, 2020
With so many players choosing to sit out selective drills or outright refusing to participate in the NFL Combine at all, Moss is clearly deciding on a different strategy at this point. By allowing subpar numbers to show, he’s displaying some intangibles alongside the statistics that speaks plenty about his work ethic, his willingness to perform in the face of pain or subpar circumstances and the like.
So far at the Combine, Moss put up a vertical leap of 33 inches, had 19 reps on the bench press, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.65 seconds and performed a shuttle in 4.37 seconds. He’s also met with 12 teams including the Kansas City Chiefs. Among others checking in on Moss are the Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, L.A. Rams, Houston Texans, L.A. Chargers, and New Orleans Saints.
Moss, who hopes to make the leap from the Pac-12 to the NFL, should put up much better numbers during his pro day, which as Adam Schefter mentions in his tweet above, is on March 26 at the University of Utah.
For the Chiefs, a player like Moss makes a lot of sense as a Day 3 addition to add to the committee in the backfield. Darrel Williams is set to return from a season-ending injury and Damien Williams remains the lead back among the rotation. Darwin Thompson was last year’s sixth round choice, a player with promise but whose frustrations in pass blocking kept him largely on the bench.
Last year, Moss was a third-team All-American and first-team All-Pac 12 with 1,416 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns for the Utes. He averaged an impressive 6.0 yards/carry in 2019 and showed his ability to be an asset in the Utes passing game as well with an additional 2 touchdowns and 388 receiving yards on 28 receptions.