It would be difficult to imagine the Indianapolis Colts' defense without Kenny Moore II. Amongst active players, he is currently tied with Zaire Franklin for third place in games played for the franchise. Those 127 games trail only Luke Rhodes and Grover Stewart on the current roster.
Moore was undrafted back in 2017. The Valdosta State alum was briefly in camp with New England but did not make their final roster. In early September 2017, he signed with the Colts. A year later, he became a starter. He has been a constant presence in the Indy secondary ever since.
It soon became apparent that despite his less-than-ideal size, Kenny Moore was the closest thing the Colts had to Bob Sanders in a decade. At 5’9”, 190 pounds, he didn’t carry Sanders’ compact explosiveness. But he was a sure enough tackler to be an ideal slot corner.
Could this be Kenny Moore’s final season with the Indianapolis Colts?
Those are typically the smallest players on the defense, but they often wind up in the middle of the action, taking on linemen who outweigh them by more than 100 pounds. The tight ends and wide receivers may only have 30-60 pounds on them.
Despite that, Kenny Moore became a mainstay.
Playing as aggressively as he did, Moore got hurt. He has only played every game in three of his nine seasons. But he was never gone for very long. When he suits up against Jacksonville this week, it will mark the ninth straight year in which he has hit double digits in games played.
For many of those years, Kenny Moore played at a very high level. He made the Pro Bowl in 2021, recording over 100 combined tackles. That is a rarity for a cornerback. Indy’s Jaylon Jones led all corners last season with exactly 100 combined tackles.
Moore's 82 solo tackles in '21 were even more impressive. Jones and Seattle’s Devon Witherspoon led all corners last year with 66 solo tackles.
Kenny Moore has proven time and time again that he is as tough as they come.
But all those tackles through all those years may be taking their toll. Moore has been very good this year, but his play does seem to be tapering off a bit as the season goes on. He is currently on pace to record the second-lowest Pro Football Focus (subscription required) grade of his entire career.
His current overall grade of 64.4 is quite respectable. But some difficult realities will come into play over the summer.
Moore turns 31 just before the 2026 season begins. That isn’t necessarily too old, but for an aggressive player like Moore, it is a dangerous age. Sanders called it quits at 30. Tyrann Mathieu, about the same size as Moore, made it to 32. It is a hard position to play for more than ten years.
Moore is signed through the 2026 season, but he will carry a large cap hit next year – north of 13 million dollars. His dead cap hit if he is cut is about six million. Of course, Chris Ballard does not relish taking such a large dead cap hit, but he may need the cash saved to work on extensions for players like Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce.
Still, Indy doesn’t simply wave goodbye to a player of Moore’s quality without someone ready to take over. That’s where 2025 third-round draft pick Justin Walley enters the equation.
The former Minnesota Golden Gopher looks an awful lot like a younger version of Kenny Moore. He is about the same size and plays with a similar toughness. He has missed his entire rookie season with a torn ACL, but assuming his recovery is on schedule, he would seem to be the ideal candidate to step into Moore’s role – and at a significantly lower price.
If Walley is deemed ready, it would be hard to justify keeping a 13 million dollar insurance policy in Kenny Moore.
There are plenty of unknowns in this calculation, and were Indy to part company with Moore, his services would be in demand from other teams. But there is a very real chance that Colts’ fans could be watching the closing performances of one of their favorite shows over the past ten years – the one in which the undersized number 23 in the Colts’ jersey blows up a ball carrier who outweighs him by a good 25 pounds.