The Detroit Lions weren’t the only ones to head to Indianapolis and get a win last Sunday. Veteran cornerback Emmanuel Moseley got a personal win in that game. It was his first full game that he played in since 2022.
It has been a very long and hard road for Moseley in the past few years. In 2022 he tore his ACL with the 49ers in Week 5 of that season. Still, he showed in San Francisco that he could be a starting cornerback in this league and becasue of that, the Lions signed him as a free agent the following offseason. Even with the knowledge that it would take him time to heal up.
Moseley got better and was ready to go against the Panthers in Week 5 of last season and then on just his second snap of the game, he tore his ACL on the opposite leg and was forced to miss the rest of the season.
Despite those setbacks, Moseley stayed in Detroit to rehab and stuck around the team and the coaching staff and front office appreciated that enough to bring him back for the 2024 season. That and again, when Moseley has been healthy, he’s shown to be a great corner.
But then this summer he tore his pectoral muscle during the start of camp and hasn’t been able to play this year. The Lions activated him last week and he got the chance to play against the Colts, but only played special teams reps. Still, Lions head coach Dan Campbell said that was huge for him.
“This game yesterday was big. I had to think about that, that was yesterday. That was big to be able to – for him, I mean, really, he hadn’t played in two years, and to be able to go out there and know that, ‘OK, I can trust this, I can trust my body.’ He went out there, competed, did a good job on teams for us.”
Campbell also said that the Lions are looking to get him involved on defense and say that he’s ready to go there. With Carlton Davis’ status up in the air right now, we could see Moseley get a lot of snaps on defense on Thanksgiving.
This is a monumental moment for Moseley in his career. He gets what a lot of guys that have similar stories don’t get and that’s another chance to show that the injuries don’t define him and that he can absolutely play this game.
There’s bound to be a lot of emotion around that. Sometimes emotion can turn into beautiful moments. Nothing would be more be more beautiful than Moseley creating a turnover.
I wouldn’t expect him to play a full games worth of snaps just yet, but it sounds like we’re going to see a lot more of Moseley going forward. After Kindle Vildor’s struggles on Sunday against the Colts, the Lions could use some veteran presence out there to help out. We desperately need a Thanksgiving interception for Moseley. The world needs it.