Bears need to get creative with DJ Moore in Week 7
The Chicago Bears cannot allow themselves to grow complacent with how they are utilizing their top offensive weapon. That becomes even more crucial this weekend against the Las Vegas Raiders with rookie quarter Tyson Bagent expecting to start his first career game in place of an injured Justin Fields on Sunday. Bears wide receiver DJ […]
The Chicago Bears cannot allow themselves to grow complacent with how they are utilizing their top offensive weapon.
That becomes even more crucial this weekend against the Las Vegas Raiders with rookie quarter Tyson Bagent expecting to start his first career game in place of an injured Justin Fields on Sunday.
Bears wide receiver DJ Moore has been phenomenal all season, but opposing defenses are starting to catch up on how to limit him going forward. Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy needs to react accordingly and start getting more creative with how he uses Moore on offense.
Moore really had his season breakout in Week 4 against the Denver Broncos. Moore hauled in eight receptions for 131 yards and a touchdown. He then followed up the performance with a 230 yard, three touchdown game against the Washington Commanders in Week 5.
However, in Week 6, Moore was finally brought back down to Earth once again. The Minnesota Vikings defense held Moore to one catch for seven yards in the first-half, a week after totaling 137 yards in two touchdowns in the first two quarters of play. Moore picked it up in the second-half against the Vikings and ended the game with five receptions for 51 yards.
Moore caught all four of his second-half receptions from Bagent, who entered the game in the third quarter after Fields injured his thumb. Moore's connection with the young quarterback was evident, but it doesn't mask the true issue that affected his production on Sunday.
"It's just a multitude of things that they did on defense that hindered that," Moore explained in the locker room after the game. "For instance, there was three people on me in one play, so I was just like, 'okay.' That's basically what it comes down to, them doing multiple different things and bringing pressure and stuff like that."
Moore's response was a startling reaction, but there's truth to what he said. There were multiple plays on Sunday were Moore was either double or tripled teamed in coverage and the Bears had no answer on offense to combat the attention.
The Bears have force fed Moore the ball from Weeks 4-5 and got him involved in a different way in each game. Just look at his route charts from those two weeks, courtesy of Next Gen Stats.
As you can see, Moore's usage across the field was completely different in those two games, and was a major reason why he was able to produce each week. In Week 4, Moore dominated the middle of the field on crossers and slants. In Week 5, Moore decimated the Commanders on quick outs, fades, and running after the catch.
That type of creativity was absent from the Bears offense in Week 6 against the Vikings. On the Bears final two offensive possessions, one of which was the team's only scoring drive of the game, Moore was moved around the formation and thus was able to avoid the heavy attention.
If the Bears want to be successful on offense with Bagent at quarterback this weekend, they'll need to move Moore around the line pre-snap more often. Getsy will have to dig into his bag of tricks to find a way to keep the added attention off of Moore down the field.
Unless, of course, he learns to utilize the added attention by designing plays to the other wide receivers while Moore takes the bulk of the surveillance in coverage. In the last two game, Bears wide receivers not named DJ Moore have totaled five receptions for 65 yards (all of which came in Week 6).
Something will have to give on Sunday, one way or another, but the Bears can't sit by idly and allow Moore to get double/triple teamed again with no answer on offense.
Tyson Bagent remains confident ahead of potentially first NFL start
The rookie will have the full week to prepare
