San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
FROM 145 POUNDS TO SECONDARY ANCHOR
49ers’ Moseley to play in home state, N.C. — 1st time in 9 years
Emmanuel Moseley entered the University of Tennessee weighing 145 pounds, less than half the size of a pint-sized SEC offensive lineman. Darrell Moseley accepts some blame for his youngest brother’s beanpole body.
“Growing up, he never really ate a lot,” Darrell said. “It was always me — I was eating the leftovers. I should have been making sure he was eating more to get his weight up. But it worked out. He still made it.”
Moseley, 26, a sticky-coverage cornerback on the San Francisco 49ers’ top-ranked defense, has indeed made it.
Nine years, a $10 million contract and nearly 50 pounds since he last played a football game in his home state of North Carolina, he will make his return Sunday when the 49ers visit the Panthers in Charlotte, about 90 miles from Moseley’s hometown of Greensboro.
Moseley, now 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, has a classic underdog bio. Before he went undrafted in 2018 and began his NFL career on the practice squad, he was ignored by his dream school, North Carolina State, and East Carolina rescinded its scholarship offer.
But those familiar with his Carolina roots don’t view Moseley’s story in Cinderella terms: He was a featherweight, but everything else about him screamed NFL-bound five-star recruit.
He had toughness, for example, that belied his size. Long before 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans recently said Moseley possessed the “heart of a lion,” he had a reputation as a 130-pound hit machine. Moseley played quarterback and inside linebacker at Hairston Middle School and his play on defense earned him a nickname: Baby Ray Lewis.
“He loved that contact, man,” said his father, also Darrell, who videotaped the games. “We used to go back and watch some of the film and I’d be like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is hilarious.’ ”
Moseley also checked boxes for desire and work ethic. Before his position coach at Tennessee, Willie Martinez, recently recalled that his intensely driven ex-pupil had a “bad case of the wants,” Moseley had a post-practice routine of 500 pushups. His brother, Darrell, relays a story of how he once put his whatever-it-takes sibling through football drills on a local field — at around 2 a.m. And his middle brother, Edward, 27, said Emmanuel was acting like a pro in his pre-high school days.
“He would watch film in middle school from my dad recording the games,” Edward said. “And he would improve
from just studying that.”
As for Moseley’s athleticism, that also wasn’t an issue. Before Moseley ran a blistering 40yard dash (4.42 seconds) before the 2018 draft, he was a dualthreat quarterback and cornerback at Dudley High School who accounted for 2,813 yards and 47 touchdowns as a senior.
In his final game at Dudley, he led the Panthers to a 24-7 win over Scotland in the Class 4A state championship game at North Carolina State to cap a 15-0 season. In the final game of his prep career, he was named the Defensive MVP of the Shrine Bowl, an all-star game pitting the top players from North Carolina and South Carolina that included 49ers’ All-Pro wide receiver Deebo Samuel.
“I can’t say if I did or I didn’t think he could go to the NFL,” said Moseley’s high school coach, Steven Davis. “But what I did know was that he was an extremely determined young man, with all the ability in the world. It was just his size. He was just fortunate that the University of Tennessee took a chance on him. And the rest is history.”
Tennessee rolled the dice because Martinez fell in love. Martinez, a 37-year coaching veteran, said he had never offered a Division I scholarship to a player who weighed less than 150 pounds, but he was smitten by Moseley’s blend of athleticism and intangibles.
Martinez began making his pitch after Moseley had committed to UNC-Charlotte before his senior season. An SEC offer? Moseley was an easy sell. But Martinez’s colleagues needed more convincing before giving a full ride to a recruit who looked half-grown.
Martinez invited Moseley to a camp at Tennessee before his senior season at Dudley. And Moseley’s performance in Knoxville against blue-chip wide receivers sealed the deal.
“I was pounding the table,” Martinez said. “I kept telling the staff here, ‘This is the kid I want, man. This kid’s got all the intangibles.’ I kept saying, ‘We can put weight on this guy. Now you’d talk to the strength coaches: ‘Can this guy put on enough weight?’ And it was 50-50 whether that was true or not. But we took the chance on him because of his talent.”
Moseley’s talent wouldn’t be revealed in the SEC until he added enough strength and weight to get on the field. He didn’t mind laboring in the weight room, but he recently looked pained when speaking at his locker about the other sacrifice that was required.
After enrolling early, he gained 18 pounds in his first eight months at Tennessee with the assistance of Allison Maurer, the school’s sports nutritionist who was tasked with beefing him up. Maurer would bring Moseley peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during classes. And there were endless protein shakes. And small meals between every meal. And middleof-the-night, alarm-clock wakeups to eat even more.
“It was just a lot,” Moseley said. “I hated food. At that time, I hated food. There would be times I couldn’t do it. There would be times I threw up. … One time I didn’t go to sleep because I kept eating and I wanted to make my weight. Drink water. Step on the scale. Eat something.”
He gained weight. And took his lumps. Moseley, who didn’t become a full-time starter until his junior season, showed he had the necessary resilience while he developed the requisite frame.
“He was fighting through (gaining weight) as he was getting his ass kicked early in his career in practice,” Martinez said. “Because we had some dudes here playing wide receiver that were big and strong.
“But he isn’t going away. That’s why I call him the gnat: He’s not going away. That’s what I loved about him. He might get his butt run over, but he’s going to come right back the next play.”
These days, Moseley, who hasn’t allowed a touchdown pass since 2020, is an integral part of a run-opponents-over defense that leads the NFL in fewest points allowed and fewest yards allowed per play.
After four games, he has allowed just 142 receiving yards in coverage, and he’s positioning himself for his biggest payday. Moseley is scheduled to be unrestricted free agent in March after signing a two-year, $10.1 million extension before the 2021 season.
However, he’s currently focused on Sunday’s date with the Panthers, his boyhood team. There will be at least 40 friends and family members at Bank of America Stadium, watching him play in his home state for the first time since he was playing fearlessly at Dudley, despite his toosmall frame.
Asked why he didn’t worry about getting hurt during his 145-pound days, Moseley pointed to his head. And then to his chest.
“My mind-set,” he said. “And my heart. That’s what I still have to this day.”