Veteran receiver Lance Moore spent plenty of years -- and caught plenty of passes -- with the Saints. He spent one year in Pittsburgh. And it didn’t end well.
“I knew the day after the playoff loss that we had, I knew that I didn’t want to be there anymore,” Moore said recently, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “They made me inactive. And I knew at that point that the writing is on the wall. I could see what their future plans were for me; it was the first time in my career that I was a healthy inactive.”
Moore added that it “never quite clicked” for him and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. With younger guys playing well, Moore ended up averaging one catch per game played -- 14.
In Detroit, Moore returns to an offense similar to the one used by the Saints, given the presence of former Saints assistant Joe Lombardi as offensive coordinator. Moore will be competing with Ryan Broyles and Jeremy Ross for the slot-receiver role, but Moore has new motivation after a failed year in Pittsburgh.
“I would say that I’ve never been so excited to go to practice, I’ve never been so excited to really just have another chance,” Moore said. “I’ve been in the league 11 years. I’ve been cut five times. You never really know when it’s going to be over, and I knew, in the back of my mind, that it wasn’t quite over, but I wasn’t sure whether I’d get an opportunity or get the right opportunity. I feel like things couldn’t have worked out any better for me, so I’m going to make the most of this opportunity.”
He’s only 31, and it’s possible Moore simply got lost in the shuffle last year. In Detroit, with Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate and Eric Ebron as the primary options in the passing game, Moore could find a way to fill an important role as an underneath option making clutch catches that help move the chains.