Bears wide receiver DJ Moore knew this might happen. He also knew it’d be a good thing.
Moore no longer is the primary focus of the passing game like he was his first two seasons with the Bears as coach Ben Johnson has diversified the offense, and while his numbers have dropped to career lows, this is the best offense — and best team overall — he’s ever been on.
But no one, especially opposing defenses, should forget about Moore. He still has elite talent and reminded everyone of that with six catches for 64 yards and the winning touchdown to beat the Packers last week to help the Bears reach a divisional-round playoff game against the Rams on Sunday.
“I hope nobody forgot him, because that’s the guy,” said Bears running back D’Andre Swift, a childhood friend of Moore’s from Philadelphia. “They paid him for a reason. You’ve got more mouths to feed now and a lot of pass catchers that are explosive. Whatever people think or say doesn’t matter — he’s a No. 1 receiver.”
As Rome Odunze, the No. 9 pick in 2024, emerged in his second season and rookie tight end Colston Loveland became a favorite weapon of Johnson’s and quarterback Caleb Williams’, Moore had just 50 catches for 682 yards and six touchdowns. The catches and yardage were the lowest of his career and about half what he put up in his first season with the Bears in 2023.
The team insisted on getting Moore as part of general manager Ryan Poles’ deal with the Panthers to offload the No. 1 overall pick for a huge haul, and with good reason. All the Bears had at receiver at that point was Darnell Mooney, and Moore led the team by a wide margin with 136 targets, followed by tight end Cole Kmet and Mooney.
He still got 140 targets last season, but this season it dropped to 85, slightly behind Odunze and ahead of Loveland. For context, his share of the targets fell from 28.5% to 26.6% to 16%.
Moore, who hadn’t been on a team with a winning record since high school, told the Sun-Times last month any dip in his production was “irrelevant” if the team was successful and added, “My stats are in the win column.”
He is the highest-paid player on the team with a salary-cap hit of $28.5 million as part of a four-year, $110 million contract extension he signed in 2024, but doesn’t carry himself that way. Moore is highly regarded inside Halas Hall for his selflessness, whether that’s because of his gritty blocking or willingness to learn other positions.
“I can’t express how good of a job that man does,” Swift said. “He does a lot of little things that go unnoticed, and when the opportunity presents itself for the ball to go to him, he’s always there to make plays. We’ve got a lot of talent on this offense, and the hard thing is there’s only one ball, but his ultimate goal is to win, and he contributes to us winning.”
Moore immediately had two big games when Odunze went down with a stress fracture in his foot, catching four passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns against the Browns, then catching five for 97 and the winning touchdown in overtime to beat the Packers. He had just one catch in each of the next two games, though, as he dealt with an illness against the 49ers and played through a knee injury against the Lions.
His knee still isn’t totally right, but he’ll play through it Sunday and likely be a problem for the Rams’ secondary. He’s a tough cover underneath and over the top, and he’s at his best after the catch. Moore doesn’t have to carry the passing game like he did in his first two seasons, but he can if the Bears need it.
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