CHARLOTTE — Derrick Brown can usually hear it first, the sound of someone flying across the field and hitting an opponent with a force that reverberates. And when he does, he knows before even looking who he's going to see, making the hit.

Tre'von Moehrig.

"He's one of the smallest guys on the field, but will rock somebody," laughed Brown this week as he talked about his teammate. "We love to have him in the back end because when he gets outside of us and just to hear 7 flying down and just smacking somebody, I mean, it's great.

"I definitely know, like if somebody's flying around in the air and I'm looking at it on the other side, I look, I'm like, 'Oh, that's Tre. That's Tre, definitely for sure.'"

It's hard not to hear Moehrig when he makes a hit. The safety is the epitome of someone flying to the ball, and he tackles like he's personally offended someone would dare to enter his space.

"He's the first (safety) in my career that I've seen like that," commented A'Shawn Robinson, a bit of awe in his voice at seeing something new after a 10-year career. "He's a D-lineman in my book, how he plays, but he has that fire. He doesn't care what size; if the O-lineman comes out, he's going to strike him, get on and off the block, and make that tackle.

"So I can respect him. All praise, like to me, he's an All-Pro. He's an All-Pro safety."

In chess, you want to be able to control the board as efficiently as possible. Using a single piece to create multiple outcomes requires strategy, thinking several moves ahead, and a willingness to take risks.

When defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero crafts schemes for the Carolina Panthers defense, deciding how to attack, entice, and confuse the opponent, Moehrig is often at the nucleus of it all.

"He's a very, very, very unique chess piece," emphasized Evero this week of Moehrig. "The ability to play safety, the ability to play linebacker, the ability to play nickel, play outside backer in some of our packages. We've placed him all over the place."

When Moehrig was signed from the Raiders this offseason, there was the hope he could become this linchpin in the Panthers' defense. It's one of the reasons it was so vital to bring him in, and after seeing how the Raiders found success using Moehrig in the box so much last season, there was the belief he could do it here as well.

But since arriving, he's gone beyond just being a box safety. Moehrig is one of just 11 defenders this season to log at least 50 snaps aligned at the line of scrimmage, linebacker, slot cornerback, and safety. Carolina uses him to disguise blitzes (he has 2.0 sacks this year and a career high in pressures), snuff out screens, make stops in the run game, and drop back deep into coverage, which is how he nabbed his interception in Week 9.

"It's mostly scheme," explained Moehrig of the different position use. "That's kind of what they brought me in for, and they had told me that that's how they wanted to use me. So it was music to my ears; I always enjoyed doing that, so we were always on the same page with the vision of how they might appreciate it."

Knowing what you're being asked to do and having the ability to do it aren't always one and the same, though. It takes a special kind of crazy to line up as a 6-2, 202-pound defensive back and throw yourself into the fire in the front seven.

"He's extremely physical, and he's been in some great positions," bragged safety Nick Scott of Moehrig. "Just, you talk about his body type, his mental, and his ability allows him to play a lot of different roles in this defense. And, you know, he's a great tackler and everything like that, so you combine putting him in the right positions and him being who he is, that's going to be the result. Extremely proud of him and the player he's been all year and just excited to see him continue to do that on Saturday."

It's the mental side that makes perhaps the biggest difference. Coupling the hair-on-fire approach with extensive practice and film study allows Moehrig to transform himself into anything the Panthers need him to be, often from play to play.

"It just kind of touches on his football acumen," complimented Evero. "Extremely, extremely intelligent, the amount of information that he has to understand and that he has to convey and process to do all of those different jobs, people would never grasp the multitude of things that he has to learn and do. And to be able to operate and execute at such a high level is, I mean, it's unfathomable, and so a lot of kudos there.

"I just think about all the work that he does, like his coach, Renaldo Hill, is doing a hell of a job with him. They spend so much extra time, before the day starts, during practice, during special teams meetings. And then also the work he's doing—he goes over, once a week with Andrew Carter, outside linebackers coach, and does some pass rush work with them, and so he's putting so much extra work to get this done, so a lot of kudos to him."

Now the work is paying off, and at crucial times for Carolina. Moehrig has lined up in the box at the eighth-highest rate of all defensive backs this season. As a result, he has recorded 12 quarterback pressures (fourth-highest among safeties), 2.0 sacks (tied for fourth-most), and made 28 run stops (fifth-most) while allowing just 5.3 yards per target when he drops into coverage, the second-fewest among safeties.

Those hits near the line of scrimmage, though, the ones that Derrick Brown can hear coming, are where Moehrig has made his bread-and-butter. The safety leads all defensive backs in the NFL by a wide margin with 12 tackles for loss; he is also tied for 15th in the entire league in that stat and trails only the 13 TFLs by Tony Jefferson (Arizona 2016), Adrian Wilson (Arizona 2005), and Robert Griffith (Minnesota 1999) for most by a defensive back in a season. With two on Saturday, he can set a new NFL record.

"I didn't really think about it until maybe a couple weeks ago when I noticed I was starting to rack up more and more," admitted Moehrig. "But I think it just really is the way I approach the game and just try to be aggressive when I can and, and take my shots and trusting everybody around me.

The approach isn't different than making an open-field tackle, explained Moehrig, whose previous season high was five TFLs in 2024, but the opportunity is there because of how the Panthers are playing him this season.

"Probably just because I'm a little closer to the ball, blitzing a little more, playing a little bit of outside linebacker and, having those opportunities to come off the edge and make a couple sacks on the quarterback, so that it all kind of adds up."

If Moehrig can accumulate eight total tackles on Saturday, he'll set a new career high in that category as well. But more than anything, the Panthers just need him to be a presence, making noise in a way only Tre'von Moehrig can.

"It's not just the value at safety, but all of these other pieces that he revised to our defense," said Evero. "There's not a lot of players in this league that you can find doing that."