Elijah Moore excited for fresh start with Browns after trade from Jets: ‘It feels good to be wanted’

Elijah Moore is looking forward to showcasing his talents to the Cleveland Browns this season, hoping to prove the New York Jets wrong by moving him down the depth chart and eventually trading him. Moore got what he wanted at the end of the day, out of new New York and a fresh start somewhere else.

Moore wants to prove the Browns right for giving him a second chance. A golden ticket. 

“I can’t do anything but feel blessed to be in the opportunity that I’m in right this moment,” Moore said Wednesday. “It feels good to be wanted, and it’s going to make any player, any human, go harder. When you feel like that and you feel like you’re around people who want you to be here, so I’m going to give it all I got every single day.”

Moore had a promising rookie season with the Jets, catching 43 passes for 536 yards and five touchdowns in 11 games. Expected to play a major role in the offense in 2022, Moore had just 37 catches for 446 yards and a touchdown in 16 games. Frustrated with his role after having one catch for 11 yards in Week 5, Moore was held without a reception the next week and asked to be traded. The Jets denied his request and Moore was inactive the next week. 

Moore started just three games the rest of the year, ending the season with five catches for 44 yards in the final three games. The Jets traded Moore and a 2023 third-round pick to the Browns for a 2023 second-round pick, no longer needing him after signing Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb.

There will be opportunities in Cleveland for Moore, who will compete for the No. 2 wide receiver job with Donovan Peoples-Jones. Amari Cooper is the No. 1 in Cleveland and Deshaun Watson is the best quarterback Moore has played with in the NFL. 

Moore is set to cash in on that golden ticket.

“That’s why I came here,” Moore said. “And if you’re not thinking like that as any player, then you have the wrong mindset. I hold myself to be a positive person. Obstacles come just like how I handled last year, and I feel like it only put me in a better position to go through life, let alone football now. 

“So from this point on, I’m looking to be a better human being, a better football player, better brother, mother, whatever it is, because that just didn’t affect–I love football. That season didn’t just affect football. It affected my life, whether it was good and bad. So I got to learn from it.”