Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Initial grade: A-<\/p>\nAs the days drew closer to the beginning of free agency, it appeared DJ Moore’s days with the Bears were numbered. With how general manager Ryan Poles spoke about him during the NFL Combine about having to make difficult decisions to navigate the salary cap, it was easy to see that a move was coming. But very few people saw the Bears fetching a second-round pick for him, even if they needed to send a fifth back to Buffalo to get it. That was a solid move by Poles and the front office.<\/p>\n
Moore is a very solid wide receiver and did some amazing things during his time in Chicago. He provided stability to a position that was in turmoil and was a reliable veteran presence for multiple young quarterbacks. The moments he provided for the franchise, such as his 230 yards and three touchdowns in one game back in 2023, multiple stellar catches, and the two clutch touchdowns against the Green Bay Packers, will be remembered forever.<\/p>\n
But the Bears are in a situation where they needed to clear space, and for as good as Moore has been, he wasn’t living up to his price tag. And for whatever reason, the consistent chemistry with Caleb Williams was never as good as it should have been. That doesn’t take away from what Moore accomplished on the field, but it would have been difficult to justify paying him as a WR1 when he’s producing as a WR2 in the Bears offense. Top weapons aren’t drawing 85 targets a year (16% target share) like Moore did a year ago.<\/p>\n
That’s what makes the compensation for Moore surprising. It seemed his value was limited to a Day 3 pick if a team was willing to take on the majority of his contract, like what the Dallas Cowboys got for Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns in 2022 while taking on a hefty salary, but the Bills thought differently. Moore should help elevate their offense and give quarterback Josh Allen an upper-echelon receiver to work with for the first time since 2023. And it’s nice to see Moore go to another contender instead of wasting his final prime years with a bottom-feeding team.<\/p>\n
This is a very good trade for the Bears, but it’s not perfect. They still need to replace Moore’s production on the field with the guys they have in the building, and there is some risk involved. Rome Odunze must rebound from an injury-ridden sophomore season and emerge as a difference maker. Burden will be tasked with developing into a well-rounded receiver as well after a promising rookie year. Neither one is guaranteed. With Williams at quarterback and Johnson leading the way, the Bears should be fine in that regard, but it’s time for the young pass catchers to prove it. Moore was their most experienced option and came up big in the clutch multiple times. His production has to be absorbed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The Bears had a choice to try and push all of their chips in for 2026 by restructuring Moore and putting themselves into a desperate cap situation over the next few years or retool by trading him while giving themselves flexibility to add other pieces without dooming their salary cap. They chose option No. 2 and it makes sense as they try to build a sustained winning team. Moving off Moore is bittersweet, but getting a second-round pick in return takes away a lot of that bitter taste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 5, 2026, 7:55 p.m. CT The Chicago Bears made their first significant move of the offseason on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[95878,215,214,53,2086,7,6,96893,96894,95882,96033,96164,96089,96900,95895,95899,95906,96008,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-795752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-bills","10":"tag-buffalo","11":"tag-buffalo-bills","12":"tag-buffalobills","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbears","16":"tag-sstsnbears","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbuffalo-bills","19":"tag-tagcaleb-williams","20":"tag-tagchicago-bears","21":"tag-tagdj-moore","22":"tag-tagnfl-hub","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116181389016663368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}