At the end of 2014, Sio Moore looked like a young player on the rise during his second season with the Oakland Raiders. Getting under the skin of Colin Kaepernick during the team’s now-famous upset win over the San Francisco 49ers, Moore was cementing his spot as not only a fan favorite, but also an outside linebacker who was starting to earn respect around the league after being drafted in the third round out of UCONN in 2013.
That was before a hip injury late in the season drastically changed the trajectory of the promising young linebacker. Taking Moore from a player who was earning a starting spot to a player rehabbing a major hip surgery during an offseason when he wanted to be working on impressing a new coaching staff.