Fox NFL analyst Randy Moss is getting a larger role this year, becoming one of the three main figures (along with Colin Cowherd and Charissa Thompson) on Fox NFL Kickoff, which is moving from FS1 to the main Fox network ahead of the primary Fox NFL Sunday pre-game show. However, there are questions about if Moss will stay there all year or if he’ll try to suit up as a player again.
Moss has mulled an NFL comeback before, but he seems to be doing so more seriously this year; he told Fox’s Curt Menefee in August that he hadn’t “lost the itch,” had been working out with other NFLers this offseason and that “the sky’s the limit for me.” It’s not just Moss who has a high opinion of what he can still do, either, as one of the players he trained with this offseason, New Orleans Saints’ receiver Brandin Cooks, told Jim Rome Tuesday that Moss could still be a NFL star:
After working out with the 7-time Pro Bowler over the summer, New Orleans Saints wideout Brandin Cooks said on The Jim Rome Show, not only could the 38-year old former superstar still play in the league, he could have immediate success.
“He could step on the field today, this Sunday, and I bet you he could probably go for a 100 yards,” Cooks said.
Cooks added that even though Moss hasn’t played since 2012, he’s still in great shape.
“He was running with us. It’s not like he was just out there coaching,” Cooks said. “He was actually running the conditioning, running the routes, and he still looked smooth.”
The second year pro said Moss and other experienced wideouts at the workouts helped him with his game both physically and mentally.
“It was definitely different to see from his perspective, a guy that did it for so long,” Cooks said of Moss. “I was out there with Steve Smith as well, just to pick their brain and the knowledge of the game. So definitely one of those things that helped my game over the summer as I get ready for camp and the season.”
Returns from the broadcasting world to the playing world do happen occasionally, but it should be noted that they don’t often go all that well. (Hello, Tim Tebow!) It’s also worth mentioning, as Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith does, that Moss hasn’t had a 100-yard receiving game since 2009, and played 43 NFL games after that without reaching that level of success. Despite that, it’s interesting to hear current NFLers say that Moss is still showing something. Whether that will lead to another NFL playing stint for him or not is debatable, but Fox might want to have a backup plan ready in case Moss does decide to lace up those cleats again. Their move to bring him in as an analyst in 2013 has worked out much better than many initially thought, as he’s won repeated plaudits for his no-holds-barred brand of analysis, and that’s led to his new, more-featured role on Fox NFL Kickoff. We’ll see if he elects to stick with that or if he wants to try to play again.
