HARRISONBURG – No wonder Jimmy Moreland was surprised to hear Jay Gruden’s voice on the other side of the line.
“I wasn’t expecting Washington,” said Moreland, the former James Madison cornerback. “They called out of nowhere.”
The Washington Redskins had to be paying attention to Moreland from afar, because on Saturday, Washington ended an afternoon of waiting for the consensus FCS All-American by selecting Moreland in the seventh round with the 227th pick of the NFL Draft.
Moreland said he didn't talk to Washington at all during the months of pre-draft evaluation.
“It was a long process today,” Moreland said, “with seeing a lot of corners come off the board before me, but hard work pays off.”
Moreland said it was Gruden, the Redskins coach, who called with the news that the franchise headquartered in Ashburn and that holds its training camp in Richmond chose the former member of the Dukes.
“It was a wild time,” Moreland said of the reaction his family had when they found out Washington was picking him.
Before Saturday, no JMU product had been drafted since the Arizona Cardinals selected Earl Watford with a fourth-round pick in 2013.
“He’s a playmaker,” Gruden told reporters of Moreland. “… I like the fact that he gets his hands on a lot of balls. He’s very talented. He’s quick-twitched. He played corner. He played some nickel in the bowl games that he played in. He moved around a little bit and I think as far as a crystal ball is concerned, you look at him both at corner and nickel and I think he’s got the skill set that fits the nickel extremely well.”
In Washington, Moreland joins a secondary featuring former All-Pro cornerback Josh Norman, two-time pro bowl cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and three-time pro bowl safety Landon Collins.
“I’m ready to get up there and work with those guys,” Moreland said. “I’m going to be a rookie and they’re all vets, so I can learn a lot.”
During his JMU career, Moreland set school records for career interceptions (18), interceptions returned for touchdowns (six) and tied the school record for interceptions in a game when he picked off three passes in the Dukes’ 2017 FCS semifinal win over South Dakota State.
“Once he gets the ball in his hands, he goes ahead and takes it back for six,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said about Moreland during the network’s telecast of the draft.
This past season as a senior in addition to garnering All-American honors, Moreland was the Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year for his 56 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, five interceptions, 10 pass breakups and blocked punt. After the season, he became the first player ever to represent JMU in the Senior Bowl.
He said being able to snap the drought of years without a Madison football alum picked in the draft is meaningful to him.
In the weeks prior to the event, Moreland visited the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears, and went through private workouts with the Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers, who all needed cornerback help, but opted to pick other players at the position on draft day.
“It’s been a long trip for me and my guys at JMU,” Moreland said. “I wish a couple of ‘em could’ve got drafted with me this year or the years before, but I got lucky I got picked today in the seventh round and now I’m living the dream for them.”
Moreland will reconnect with former Dukes teammate and defensive end Andrew Ankrah, who Washington signed earlier this month following Ankrah’s stint with the Orlando Apollos of the Alliance of American Football.
Moreland said he’s just anxious to get to Washington and begin his pro career.
“I’m excited to be around football again,” Moreland said. “I’m ready to strap my helmet up.
“This process is finally over now, so now it’s about showing people what I can do and not what people say I can do.”
