Packers Add Experienced Receiver, Returner

Get to know David Moore, who has a career average of 8.5 yards per punt return.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers signed receiver David Moore to their practice squad on Thursday, adding an experienced punt returner who could impact their special teams for the playoffs.

Moore (6-0, 219) was a seventh-round pick by the Seattle Seahawks in 2017. In 2019, he averaged 7.5 yards on 10 punt returns; in 2020, he averaged 9.3 yards on 12 returns with a long of 20. He muffed one kick in each of those seasons (total of 46 chances, including fair catches). He also has four career kickoff returns with a 16.5-yard average.

“He does have a skill-set and, when he’s ready to rock and roll, I’m sure he’ll get the green light,” special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton said on Thursday.

In 49 career games that include 14 starts with Seattle in 2018 through 2020, Moore caught 78 passes for 1,163 yards (14.9 average) and 13 touchdowns. He set career highs with 35 receptions, six touchdowns and a 74.5 percent catch rate last year. This season, he played in two games for Denver but didn’t catch any passes.

Moore played collegiately at East Central, a Division II school located in Ida, Okla.

“Listening to my mom, she would tell me, ‘It’s not about where you go, it’s what you do when you get there,’” Moore said during a breakout 2018 season. “Then when I got (to ECU), I had a good connection with my coach, and it just felt like home. The rest is history.”

He spent his rookie year on Seattle’s practice squad before moving into a key role for his final three seasons with the Seahawks. Seattle coach Pete Carroll joked that Moore played at “Directionally Okahoma.” Doug Baldwin, Seattle’s star receiver in 2018, called Moore a “savage.”

Before the 2017 draft, Moore measured 6-foot 5/8 and ran his 40 in 4.43 seconds. He was one of the better deep targets in the NFL in 2018 when he caught 8-of-18 passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield.

“Coming from a D-II, I had to overcome things, and learn a lot of things,” he said after signing with Carolina in May. “The coaches in Seattle really developed me into more of a complete receiver and pushed me to my limits to get me to be able to do more things.”

Moore played two games against Green Bay. In 2018, he caught 4-of-8 passes for 57 yards and fumbled once. In the 2019 playoffs, he rushed once for 6 yards and returned one punt for 10 yards.

The Panthers released Moore at the end of training camp. Las Vegas added him to the practice squad a couple days later, and the Broncos signed him to their 53-man roster in late September.