Blunt assessment of the DJ Moore trade continues to show the national media believes Ryan Poles and the Bears swindled the Bills
The Chicago Bears’ biggest move of the offseason ended up being the team’s toughest decision to make, but the end result continues to look sweeter for general manager Ryan Poles.
The decision to trade veteran wide receiver DJ Moore was not an easy one for the Chicago Bears to make this offseason, but it was a necessary move to make looking at the bigger picture of things.
Financially, the Bears had to do something with Moore’s contract to free up a large sum of cash for the rest of the roster. The emergence of Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland also played a major role in shipping Moore out of town.
Everyone knew the Bears would end up parting ways with Moore, regardless of the internal feelings for the player from the staff and the front office. In these type of situations, teams usually have to settle on a lessor deal to move on. Not in this situation.
Chicago ended up flipping Moore to the Buffalo Bills, an obvious landing spot considering the trade history between the two general managers and Moore’s history with Buffalo’s new head coach Joe Brady. In return, the Bears received a 2026 second-round pick, a steal of a return considering most expected the Bears to get a high Day 3 selection, at best.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell slams the Buffalo Bills for making the DJ Moore trade with the Chicago Bears
I’ll admit, I was absolutely stunned when the details of this trade came out. The Bills not only coughed up a second-round pick for Moore, they also agreed to eat all of Moore’s remaining contract instead of forcing the Bears to eat part of the money. It was stellar work by Ryan Poles and an overall bad move by the Bills.
“Under that lens, making a significant move for a receiver made sense. I’m just not sure this was the right one,” ESPN’s Bill Barnwell wrote. “Moore is coming off what was comfortably his worst season as a pro, one in which he seemingly fell out of favor with Ben Johnson in the Chicago offense. The Bears had little leverage in dealing with Moore, given that they were about to be on the hook for $49 million over the next two seasons for a guy who might have been their fourth option in the passing game heading into 2026. This should have essentially been a salary dump scenario for Ryan Poles.”
Barnwell added that the Bills were clearly “acting out of desperation” to upgrade the wide receiver room to give quarterback Josh Allen a top-level weapon in the passing game. I agree it was a curious choice to make and one the Bills will now have to live with.
Josh Allen and DJ Moore are already developing their connection in practice
For the first time since the trade was made, we finally got to see content of Allen and Moore building their on-field connection at OTAs.
“Some of the cuts that he makes with the ball in his hands already, and we don’t have pads on, but he’s able to contort his body in different ways that I don’t think I’ve ever seen, and he’s not a small guy,” Allen said of Moore. “So, it’s been pretty fun to watch. He’s super smooth. He’s faster than you think, and he just kind of glides on people.”
Speaking with the media at OTAs, Moore said he’s looking to reestablish himself and show everyone he can still perform at a high level.
Meanwhile, the Bears will head into their own OTAs next week with a ton of excitement surrounding their young pass catchers set to step up in Moore’s absence.