Damontre Moore positioned himself as a high first-round draft pick during his junior season at Texas A&M. The NFL Scouting Combine was less favorable in building buzz for the defensive end.
Moore raised a significant red flag on the bench press, where he managed just 12 reps. That was the lowest total among 37 defensive linemen in Indianapolis. Things didn't get better during the 40-yard dash, where Moore tweaked his hamstring and posted a time of 4.95 seconds.
Moore doesn't believe his hamstring issue is serious, and he is confident he'll run in the 4.7 to 4.8 range at his March 8 pro day.
"I had a rocky start with the bench press," Moore told NFL.com's Matt "Money" Smith and Bucky Brooks. "I was really disappointed I was nowhere near what I did when I was training. I was disappointed in that, but it's just like football. There's always adversity, you gotta learn from it and move on."
NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock didn't hold back in his criticism of Moore.
"I wasn't high on Damontre Moore," he said. "I hear top five, I don't believe it. And by the way, he did (12) reps at (225 pounds). That is totally unacceptable. I don't know how you convert speed to power if at 250 pounds you can only bench press 225 (12) times. So I'm kind of poking holes in all these supposed top-10 guys because I'm not seeing it."
Entering the combine, Mayock listed Moore second in his positional rankings at defensive end. Expect that to change.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.
