Speaking to reporters, the Everton manager set out how he intends to keep the centre-back.
“We've got him on a really good long contract now. So my idea is that we build and we bring more players of that level in which makes Jarrad want to stay and that makes him realise that we're building a team, which is going to be improving.
“We have to show those players, and we have to show people like Jarrad Branthwaite, that we are going to make those steps to continue to step forward.”
The message carries weight after Iliman Ndiaye's deadline-day move to Manchester City, a deal worth £65 million including add-ons.
Branthwaite, 24, signed a contract running to 2030 in July 2025, a year after Manchester United had bids turned down. Moyes described what it took to keep him:
“It was probably one of the most difficult times, really, because we had just left Goodison. Obviously we had avoided relegation and were moving into the new stadium. We had to work hard in the summer to get Jarrad because he was in demand.
“Then, unfortunately, he picked up an injury which put him back a little bit and it hung with us for quite a while. But I always thought he had the attributes to go on to be a top centre-back and he's still young. Centre-backs can play for a long time.
“I don't know if I can get the words right but he's trying to maybe grow out of that big, athletic legs and young body, which might have just hindered him a little bit [physically] earlier on.”
A pre-season hamstring problem led to surgery in October and a January return, and he was then stretchered off in a 2-1 derby defeat by Liverpool on 19 April.
This time he spent part of the summer with a specialist in Germany, has started all five league games and was an unused substitute in the 1-0 Carabao Cup win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on 16 September. Moyes explained the approach:
“We've paced him through pre-season. We didn't play him in all the games, we kept him out if we were playing Saturday, Wednesday in the early part, we kept him out of it.
“We didn't use him in midweek here, at the moment, but he's ready to play if he has to play Saturday, Wednesday football. So we've just tried to – and I have to say the medical team have done a really good job – but Jarrad's looked after himself really well and, if anything, I think when you have an injury like Jarrad's it makes you even more professional.
“So I think in some ways it's made Jarrad realise that he'll need to really look after himself at the right times. But it's just that he's got such acceleration and speed. He's had a couple of hamstring injuries which hopefully are solved.”
Thomas Tuchel has now recalled him, and it will be the England manager's first time working with him. His only cap came as a 28-minute substitute against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 3 June 2024.
That is a quick turnaround for a player who made only 10 league appearances last season, and the standard Moyes wants the squad around him to reach.