Arthur Moats, a linebacker out of James Madison University, was a sixth-round draft pick back in 2010. However, his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t begin until 2014, when he was signed as a free agent.
Moats appeared on The Christian Kuntz Podcast on Thursday, and he had a funny story to tell about his interesting first experience with the Steelers, after failing to agree to terms with the franchise that drafted him, the Buffalo Bills.
“I remember coach Tomlin hit me up. He’s like, ‘yeah, man, you know, we from the same spot back home, take a chance on me’… so I’m like, all right, cool, let’s do it, and we get the deal done,” said Moats.
After Moats and the Steelers had agreed to a deal, Pittsburgh wanted him to come down from Buffalo for a physical. Moats was surprised by the way in which the Steelers wanted him to get to Pittsburgh, though.
“I’m thinking like, alright man. Everybody that talks about taking visits gets flown out. It’s supposed to be nice and pristine,” Moats said. “But man, it’s like ‘Hey, so look, since you in Buffalo bro, we’re just gonna drive you down.’”
That wasn’t the end of the surprises for Moats. Once he arrived, head coach Mike Tomlin wasn’t even there, and was at an owners’ meeting instead.
“And then he’s like, yeah, we’re not here. We’re at the owners’ meeting, but we got the guy that you’re gonna meet with. He’s gonna take you around,” Moats said. ‘So, like we got off to a bad foot like, for my first impression.”
This is a funny story from Moats, but it shows that a first impression isn’t always indicative of what the future might hold. Despite feeling like he got off to a bad start with the team, Moats didn’t have too many doubts about his choice to join the Steelers.
He speaks about being awe-struck when seeing Troy Polamalu and Ben Roethlisberger’s lockers, but for Moats, it was the extensive winning tradition of the franchise that ended up convincing him to call Pittsburgh his new home.
“You really start to just think about the culture,” Moats said. “And that was the other part, walking around, you start to see some of the pictures, you see the Super Bowl trophies, you see these names and you’re like, yo…if you can play linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, man, there is nothing nobody can ever say to you about what you are as an athlete, what you are as a player.”
Moats did play linebacker for the Steelers, and he did so for four seasons. He ended up having a solid career with the team. During those four years, he saw the field in 62 games, appearing in all 16 regular season games during his first three years as a Steeler.
Moats would finish his time as a Steeler with 11.5 sacks, 24 QB hits and 87 tackles with 11 of them being for a loss. Despite getting off on the wrong foot with the team, it seems like he made the right decision to sign in Pittsburgh, and the Steelers made the right decision to bring him in.
After his time in Pittsburgh, Moats would sign with the Arizona Cardinals before the 2018 season. Unfortunately, he sprained his MCL just before the season began and ended up being placed on injured reserve. The Cardinals would eventually release him in October of that same year, and Moats would spend the rest of the season without a home.
After failing to find a team for the 2019 season, Moats retired from the NFL.
Disregarding his short stint in Arizona, he spent eight years in the NFL. Moats finished his career with 228 tackles, 16.5 sacks, 38 QB hits and 15 tackles for a loss, which isn’t a bad career resume at all for a sixth-round selection.
As for the 2024 Steelers, Moats does have some confidence in his former team.
