Chargers 90-in-90: DT David Moa

David Moa is from nearby San Diego, California where he starred on both the offensive and defensive lines for Kearny High School. As a senior, he was named All-Western League in both his junior and senior seasons. Following his prep career, Moa committed to play at Boise State of the Mountain West Conference.

As freshman, Moa had to wait a little extra time to see the field as he was selected to redshirt. The following year, he saw playing time in five games where recorded just three tackles and a lone sack.

Entering the 2016 season, Moa won a starting job and went on to start all 13 games. He led the Broncos with 8.5 sacks while totaling 30 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, four pass deflections, and a blocked kick. For his efforts, he was named a First-Team All-Mountain West selection.

As a junior, Moa played 13 games with 11 more starts. He ended the year with 21 total tackles and a pair of sacks. Those numbers were good enough for Second-Team All-Mountain West honors. What appeared to be his senior season in 2018 was unfortunately cut short due to injury after just one game. He was awarded a medial redshirt and given a sixth year of eligibility for the 2019 season.

In that final season, Moa started all 14 games and finished with 37 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and one sack. He capped his career by once again earning second team honors in the Mountain West.

Moa would go undrafted in 2020 before signing a UDFA contract with the Vikings. After spending the preseason with Minnesota, he was eventually waived amid final cuts. After spending a week with the Falcons, he was released and soon signed by the Giants where he’d spend most of the next year two years.

On August 22nd, 2022, Moa was released by the Giants as part of their final cuts. On November 16th, the Chargers came calling after the team lost almost all of their depth at defensive tackle within just a few weeks. On January 23rd, 2023, Moa signed a reserve/future contract.

Basic Info

Height: 6’3
Weight: 296
College: Boise State
Experience: 3
Years with team: 1

Contract Status

“David Moa signed a 2 year, - contract with the Los Angeles Chargers, including an average annual salary of -. In 2023, Moa will earn a base salary of $870,000, while carrying a cap hit of $870,000.” - Spotrac.com

The Good

Moa was signed alongside fellow defensive tackle Tyeler Davison following a week where the Chargers lost multiple players at the position to injury in the same game. Down the final stretch, the younger Moa outplayed the veteran and ended up earning more snaps and another contract with the team.

He’s got ideal size for either nose tackle or three-technique and offers some strong plays when he puts it all together. He showed decent pass-rush productivity early on in his college career and it’d do him well to start finding that level of play once again in order to help himself carve out a role with this team.

The Bad

Moa lacks the ideal strength at the point of attack to consistently take on double-teams which severely cuts his potential at nose. He can get washed out of his gap far too easy at times.

Odds of making the roster/What to expect in 2023?

It’s taken Moa some time to latch on to an NFL team and despite earning a reserve/future contract with the Chargers, he’s facing an uphill battle to make the team in any capacity after the team added two new defensive tackles this offseason in sixth-round pick Scott Matlock and promising UDFA Jerrod Clark. With five names ahead of Moa (at minimum) on the depth chart before we get into Clark and the other UDFAs, there will be some tough competition during camp just for the right to keep a job on the practice squad. I believe he has the ability to hang on, but only time will tell in what looks to be a competitive group this year.