Airius Moore highest rated returning NC State player by Pro Football Focus

NC State’s defensive line rightly has received a lot of attention during this offseason, but we can’t forget about the linebackers, who should be pretty darn solid in their own right this fall.

Airius Moore is one of the veterans returning at linebacker, and according to Pro Football Focus, he’s the highest-graded returnee on the team, regardless of position, finishing just ahead of Tony Adams and Bradley Chubb.

That’s a tad surprising but no doubt he’s coming off a very productive season: 86 tackles (3rd on the team), 13.0 tackles for loss (2nd). With another big year perhaps he’ll earn a little more respect from All-ACC voters—he did not even receive an honorable mention nod last year, which is to say that he had fewer All-ACC votes than 16 other linebackers. In hindsight, that seems ... wrong.

Gives him something to prove in 2017, though, which is not a bad thing.