Every now and again, the NFL is an easy game to figure out. Not playing it or solving the sport, but connecting the dots between needs, players who might be available and the general machinations of teams as they look to improve their rosters.
This is why I connected DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills about 50 times — ballpark — over the last couple of months. Now that the move has become reality, Moore is headed to Buffalo, along with a fifth-rounder, in exchange for a second-round pick being sent back to the Chicago Bears. To be transparent, that’s a higher pick than I thought would be included in the trade package.
Advertisement
The writing was on the wall for Moore, who admittedly didn’t play his best football in 2024 and saw his role diminished in his first season with Ben Johnson at the controls. There was just no reason for the cap-strapped Bears to absorb his $27.5 million average annual salary any longer with two cheaper, quality young wideouts flanking him on the depth chart in Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III, along with Colston Loveland at tight end. More on them later.
Landing in Buffalo makes perfect sense for Moore, as he’s familiar with new head coach Joe Brady’s system, and they have a massive need at wideout. In anticipation that this pairing might occur, I asked Moore last month what he liked about playing in Brady’s offense when they were together in Carolina from 2020 to 2021. He was complimentary of Brady’s “nuanced” and “newer” routes and concepts:
I also share Moore’s affinity for the design of Brady’s passing game. As eluded in the video above, the Bills’ heavy reliance on screens, and general lack of downfield passing for stretches of the last few seasons, have said more about their bottom-tier perimeter receiver personnel than it does about what Brady wants to do.
Advertisement
In fact, we can look back to Brady’s use of Moore as the X-receiver in Brady’s first year with the Panthers to confirm that. Simply put, he brings plenty of skills and credible alignment potential that the Bills’ wide receiver room has lacked the last couple of seasons.
Moore isn’t a fit for everyone as a top outside receiver; he can be loose with his route details and needs the right touch of role-catering. It makes sense why he just wasn’t a fit for the maniacally detailed Ben Johnson in Chicago but this can work with Buffalo. I’ve spoken to Josh Allen previously and he highlighted that he doesn’t care if his WR1 is always at the right depth in his routes or not, as long as he “just gets open.”
The Bills haven’t had anyone to get open on the perimeter the last two years. Moore isn’t every stringent evaluator’s or coach’s cup of tea as a route runner, but he does get open. Considering Allen’s preferences and history, this connection can work even if Moore is a little loose on the details.
Advertisement
The Bills needed someone to get the job done, and Moore’s ceiling outcomes are better than just about anyone who was available at wide receiver this offseason playing in this ecosystem. Good acquisition, in a world where finding a “true No. 1 receiver” is always easier said than done.
Right now, I’d say Moore projects to be a quality starting fantasy receiver who could flirt with 1,000 yards, depending on who else is added to this room. That is one note we should certainly hit on; I’d be shocked if this is the final wide receiver addition the Bills make this offseason. My preferred strategy for Buffalo in what needs to be a complete makeover of this room over the next few months was to make a veteran trade (Moore was my favorite option) and then come back around to double-tap this in the NFL Draft.
Once we get to the end of April, we’ll have a better sense of how to project Moore from a production standpoint. For now, he’s clearly the top outside receiver on the team, will help Allen in the passing game and be put in advantageous positions to win both downfield while playing for a coach who has shown a real ability to work guys into space, something I know that Moore is eager to do more of to show off his tackle-breaking ability in the run-after-catch phase.
Let’s flip this back to Chicago, where Moore leaves behind a room that has no shortage of interesting options.
Advertisement
As soon as the Bears took Luther Burden III, I predicted that he would be selected to push the veteran and eventually take Moore’s position in the starting lineup. The fantasy hivemind seems to believe that Burden was taken to be Johnson’s coveted slot player — the Amon Ra. St. Brown role that isn’t real and only existed in Detroit because St. Brown is awesome. However, to me, Burden can win outside and is best weaponized when he can move around the formation, allowing him to get the ball in space. In other words, he belongs in the same archetype of receiver as Moore.
The fantasy industry was always destined to steam up Burden’s ADP and 2026 outlook, and Moore being off the roster should have been baked into that already. So, no need to double-count it but Burden should move into a full-time player spot after never quite getting that promotion as a rookie.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he projects as the clear top target in the offense. Burden will compete with two other excellent players in Odunze, who was the leading man in the passing game early last season before suffering a foot injury that ruined his season, and Loveland, who looked like a future elite player as the Bears’ season came to a close.
Advertisement
The Bears have a talented and diverse group of pass-catchers at their disposal heading into 2026, and are only likely to make depth additions beyond this trio. All three of Loveland, Burden and Odunze fit Caleb Williams’ game for different reasons.
My answer to which Bears passing-game player I want to be invested in for 2026 has always been, “Yes.” Take your shots on all of these players. That opinion has only crystallized now that the foreseen Moore trade has made the room a little less crowded.
Read the full article here