Zack Moss

3rd-round Bills pick → traded mid-season → 794-yard breakout in Indy.

Drafted by Buffalo in 2020 as Devin Singletary's complement, Moss spent 2.5 years splitting reps before a midseason 2022 trade to Indianapolis. The Colts unleashed him in 2023 with Jonathan Taylor's holdout: 183 carries, 794 rushing yards, 5 TDs — his only career season as a clear lead back.

Why it matters. Moss was drafted as a complement, not a feature back — the trade to Indy and Jonathan Taylor's holdout were the only reasons his career touched 183 carries in a season. Take those two events out and he's a career timeshare back.

165 yards and 2 TDs vs. Tennessee in Week 5, 2023 — the career game.

Moss has 3 career 100-yard rushing games, all came as a Colt. The 30-carry game vs. Baltimore (Week 3, 2023) was his only career 30-carry game — feature-back workload, the kind Taylor used to get.

Why it matters. The Tennessee game is the only 150-yard rushing game on Moss's ledger and one of only three career 100-yard rushing games — all of them in Indy, all of them in the Jonathan Taylor holdout stretch.

Colts era was Moss's only above-average ground game: 4.47 ypc, 1,159 yards on 259 carries.

Indianapolis is the only stop where Moss cleared 4.4 yards per carry — and it's also where he saw the most volume (259 carries vs. 233 in three Buffalo seasons). The 2024 Cincinnati dip to 3.27 ypc on 74 carries behind Chase Brown was the worst run of his career; Buffalo and Indy together produced 4.23 ypc on 492 carries.

Why it matters. The team-by-team split lines up with Moss's role: feature back in Indy during Taylor's holdout, complement back in Buffalo behind Singletary, third option in Cincinnati behind Brown. Workload, not just talent, drove the per-carry gap.

Dual-threat back: 4.13 ypc rushing, 7.2 yds/reception receiving.

Career totals: 566 carries, 2,339 rushing yards, 16 rushing TDs plus 102 receptions, 736 receiving yards, 5 receiving TDs. The receiving-back side is real — 102 catches in 63 games (1.6 per game) — but the bread and butter is between-the-tackles work.

Total: 3,075 yards from scrimmage, 21 total TDs in 63 career games. 1 TD every 3 games.

Why it matters. The 1.6-catches-per-game receiving share means Moss never had to leave the field on third downs, but he was never the dump-off centerpiece either — the per-touch gap (4.13 rushing, 7.22 receiving) just reflects the math of every NFL back.

3 different teams in 5 NFL seasons — and the best year was the year of the trade.

Moss spent 2020-21 in Buffalo, was traded mid-2022 to Indianapolis, signed with Cincinnati in 2024. The trade year (2022) had the team change mid-season — he played 13 games across BUF and IND combined for 456 rushing yards.

Then 2023 happened: with Jonathan Taylor holding out, Moss got the lead-back keys for the only time in his career and put up 794 rushing yards on 183 carries, plus 27 catches for 192 yards — the only top-20 RB usage season on his resume.

Why it matters. Moss's career has one true peak season and it required a specific accident: a midseason trade plus the starting RB holding out the next year. Outside that 2023 window he's never been the lead back on any roster.