INDIANAPOLIS --- Head Coach Chuck Pagano summed up what you need to know about new linebacker Sio Moore as a football player in one sentence Monday.
"We he arrives at the ball, he arrives in a bad mood," said Pagano, at his press conference, after the Colts acquired Moore from the Oakland Raiders over the weekend for a late round draft pick. "That's the kind of guys you want on that side of the football."
Colts cornerback Darius Butler knows Moore pretty well. Both played at UConn, with Butler hosting Moore on his campus visit. Moore joked Butler was also the one making sure he ran his first 6AM windsprints as a freshman in college when he broke a team rule.
"I know he's an athlete. He's got a high motor. A high motor guy that's going to run and get to the ball," said Butler Monday. "I had him at my house last night just kind of helping him along with the new system. He's a smart guy so I expect him to pick it up pretty fast."
"It's intense, in a good way," said Moore about the defensive playbook. "Not in a way where I don't understand it. In a way where I know what the coaches are trying to do. They're trying to get after the quarterbacks and really establish what we do on our side of the ball."
Moore's new head coach seconds Butler's thoughts on Moore as a high-motor athlete, after finishing 3rd on the Raiders in tackles last season and adding three sacks. Moore also added 4.5 sacks in 2013.
"He can help anybody. I'm just glad we got him," said Pagano. "He is a fast, athletic, high-energy, tough, run and hit ball player. He can play special teams...he's a solid, solid, solid guy. He loves football. He's passionate about football."
Moore has never played in a 3-4 defense after being listed as an outside linebacker in Oakland, and it's unclear where the Colts will use him. When asked Monday if he thinks he'll play inside or outside linebacker, Moore simply said "linebacker". The Colts official roster does list him as an inside linebacker.
Regardless, Moore provides depth and is appreciative to have this opportunity, after recovering from hip surgery this offseason.
"When I sat down with Coach P, we talked ball maybe about 15 minutes, and probably we talked another 45 minutes about being men," said Moore. "We talked about life. We talked about the importance in life, the things fundamentally that are important from a team standpoint and individual standpoint. Man, I really appreciate that. That let me know I'm going to a family."
What's that mean for the football field?
"I've never walked into an opportunity like this in my life," said Moore. "You know I'm going to hit it with everything I've got."
Hitting things hard is par for the course for Sio Moore.
