“He grew up in the city. He saw everything,” says Dameon Jones. “I know he saw homeless people, saw people dying, gangs,” but she had a plan.

“I kept him in church,” says Cassandra, whose father pastored a church in Liberty City. “I grew up in church. I also saw a lot of things and that kept me away from things. I kept my kids in church.”

Moss always bought his mother a house in Hollywood, Florida, and when she takes a selfie on the patio, she lets him know she’s in her “happy place.” Her son seems to have found his in Cincinnati, where he’s religiously devoted to his sport and his new team, and where there seems to be a new devotion to the running game.

“I think we have more multiple sets and with our dynamic tight ends we’ll have good opportunities,” said Karras, the man in the middle. “We have two backs that can do it…I’d like to get a good running game out of Joe. We’ve worked really hard from top to bottom. The guys understand the concept of what we want on every run. We definitely need to have more multiple sets on offense and (the coaches) have done a great job. We have a good plan. We have a good team. We had a good camp. I think we had a great camp.”

The same thing Justin Hill saw from Moss on tape, Karras saw in camp.

“He’s a great read. He can read the gap very well. He has the perfect style for the running game we use,” Karras said. “He’s an excellent pass blocker, which is what we need from our backs. We’re a No. 9 driven team. We’re going to throw the ball down the field. He does a fantastic job of blocking. He brings a lot more to the table, but that’s a nice aspect of his game.”

In addition to Moss’ pass defense, there’s another aspect of his game that brings so much to Hill: He just fits well into the Bengals’ shot-gun scheme and they can use him on all three downs.

“He came from Indy and had a lot of success in the run game in the gun,” Hill said. “He played all three downs, caught the ball well out of the backfield and held his own on defense. He’s a reliable first, second and third down back, which is a huge advantage for us.”

“We’re going to give it our all. We’re going to play defense and the defenders have to hold the defense in this offense and I’m very happy with him. He’s really an instinctive runner. He has a talent for making something out of nothing.”

As he grew up, Moss became aware of the exploits of Bengals Ring of Honor member Chad Johnson. The celebrations. The dancing. The talking.