Tre'von Moehrig brings "absolute hammer" personality to defense

Sep 04, 2025 at 05:11 PM

Darin Gantt

CHARLOTTE — There's a dichotomy between the Tre'von Moehrig you see walking the halls of Bank of America Stadium and the guy his coaches and teammates describe.

Panthers head coach Dave Canales called him "an absolute hammer" this week, and all the ways they have to describe him have that physical, violent connotation. Derrick Brown calls him "Striker." He's clearly been typecast.

So to see him outside the white lines, people are occasionally surprised to learn he's quiet, polite, and understated.

"I think so," Moehrig said with a laugh when asked if those competing personas were a surprise to people who met him in other contexts. "Off the field, you know my personality is not so aggressive, and I'm really pretty laid back and chill and low key about my business.

"But when you play football and step in between the lines, it's different, I try to turn that switch on whenever I play the game, because that's how it's supposed to be played in my mind."

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Whatever it is, the Panthers obviously wanted to add it to the locker room and to the field.

In their flurry of moves in the first hours of the negotiating period in March, he was the first deal they struck — a couple of hours before they got anyone in the front seven to agree to terms, and targeting him was intentional.

Improving the run defense isn't just about stacking big bodies up front; they were also looking for an enforcer in the secondary, and believe they've found one. Last year with the Raiders, he had a career-high 104 tackles, a career-high 10 passes broken up, and a career-high five tackles for loss. The only other safety in the league to post 100, 10, and 5 in those categories was Brian Branch, and he went to the Pro Bowl.

The Carolina Panthers face off against the Houston Texans in a joint practice at NRG Park on August 14th, 2025.

Canales was speaking in general terms about the physical nature of their training camp, and he brought up Moehrig, unprompted.

"... And bringing a guy in like Tre'von Moehrig who just is an absolute hammer, play in and play out," Canales said with his usual (high) level of obvious enthusiasm. "Like, he's trying to hit somebody on every play.

"It's almost like he feels like he didn't earn the play if he hadn't hit somebody on that play, and so I just love that the guys are really grasping that and taking a hold of that mentality."

That notion of Moehrig coming here to be a tone-setter was absolutely intentional.

So much so, that one of the other foundational players on defense, Brown, shared that Canales glow when talking about the safety.

"He's a striker; that's what I call him," Brown said. "Come across the middle, if you're moving across the middle, beware.

"I mean, it's great to have Tre' in here. Not to take anything from anybody else, but to have Trey in here and doing what he does, I'm psyched."

The Panthers intend to use Moehrig in multiple ways, but his ability to be physical in the run game is near the top of the list.

The Carolina Panthers hold camp on Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2025 in Charlotte, NC.

"It's always great to have guys like him," defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said. "I've been a big fan of his since he played at TCU, and a good friend of mine was his coach in college, and he's been raving about him for a long time. Tre' plays defensive football the way you want to see it played. Plays hard, he plays physical, he's very, very, very nice guy off the field, very respectful.

"And then he gets on the field and he's a Tasmanian devil, and so it's really, really cool to see and feel, and it certainly uplifts his team as well. So yeah, it's been, it's been really fun to coach him, he's a pleasure to coach and work with day in and day out, and then obviously when we get on the field and those full contact situations, he's exactly what you want."

The Carolina Panthers hold practice on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025 at Bank Of America Stadium, in Charlotte, NC.

But then there's off-field Moehrig, who has pet reptiles and takes up new hobbies every offseason to keep himself occupied, whether it's guitar, snowboarding, or modeling.

It's not the collection of descriptors he gets at work, but he also knows when to draw that line.

And he clearly knows he was brought here to bring that on-field toughness.

"I think for me it was just coming out here and just kind of playing with a dominant mindset, trying to be dominant on the field," he said. "Just somebody, whenever I step on the field, people can look to me and I know that my play style is going to be aggressive and physical.

"That's kind of my mentality coming here that's just kind of what I want to provide and show them my place you know hopefully everybody can catch on and play for that way too. I try to go out there and just feel like I'm the baddest one on the field; that's kind of my mindset. Like nobody can mess with me, and hang with me. Obviously, I've got to make the plays they're supposed to make and do my job, but that's kind of how I approached the game."