Ryan Poles’ latest comments make it sound like trading WR DJ Moore will be a last resort decision for the Bears
The Chicago Bears have a lot of personal feelings for DJ Moore to get over this offseason.
Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Ben Johnson spoke with the media on Tuesday at the NFL Combine and eventually the elephant in the room was discussed involving the future of veteran wide receiver DJ Moore.
Based on the comments from Poles and Johnson, it’s clear there’s still a lot of admiration and respect for what Moore brings to the organization, but tough moves will have to be made and Moore stands out as an obvious player to move to free much needed cap space.
“We want him here,” Poles said of Moore. “We think highly of him. He’s a great teammate and been productive consistently over the last couple of years that he’s been here. I have nothing but great things to say about him. But this is the time now where we have to look at all the different scenarios that will allow us to put the best team out there. I’ve talked about this before, there’s relationships there that make it really really difficult. He’s a guy we want here but we have to look at all the scenarios.”
After speaking with the local media, Poles and Johnson broke up to do one-on-one spots with various radio and news stations. Speaking with Waddle and Silvy on ESPN Chicago, Poles offered a more detailed answer on the difficult decisions he has to make over the next few weeks.
DJ Moore trade is sounding like a last resort decision for the Bears to make
“It’s hard to tell right now,” Poles said when asked if Moore will be on the roster in 2026. “We’re trying to put all of these pieces together. Obviously, we have some cap constraints, we’re over right now and we gotta get under. There’s some different things that we can do, there’s combinations of things that we can do. We have to listen to the league and the things that come out of this week, in terms of, is anyone interested in any other player that puts us in a position to reconfigure a little bit.”
That last line is telling and shows the Bears have the yard sale open for business this week to see if they can get any offers before making any rash decision. Right now, the Bears are roughly $3 million over the cap with Moore commanding the highest-cap hit on the team. Trading him would save the team $16 million in cap space for 2026, but as Poles noted, there’s other things the team can do.
The first one that comes to mind is releasing linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, a move that would save $15 million in cap space, but again it’s a tough call to cut one of the top free agents Poles brought to Chicago back in 2023. Perhaps the Bears instead shop Edmunds this week, considering he’s bound to have interest and a trade creates the same amount of cap savings.
Two other cap casualties the Bears could shop this week are tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift, although those two were specifically asked about and here’s what Poles had to say.
“I feel pretty good about those guys mentioned being here, but again, there’s a lot more calls coming in on interest on some of these guys,” Poles explained. “So, we have to sequence that out to see how it impacts our team. I’ve talked a little bit about cost of replacement, so what does that look like. Really, this week, we know what we need to do and any unique opportunities might pop up are usually going to pop up here. And then we’ll get back and sort it all out.”
Just for added context, here are some of the players that can save the Bears some cap space for 2026 by trading them away.
| Player | Cap Savings | Dead Cap |
| WR DJ Moore | $16.5 million | $12 million |
| DE Montez Sweat | $16.9 million | $8.2 million |
| LB Tremaine Edmunds | $15 million | $2.4 million |
| TE Cole Kmet | $8.4 million | $3.2 million |
| RB D’Andre Swift | $7.5 million | $1.3 million |
| QB Tyson Bagent | $3.75 million | $1 million |
| CB Tyrique Stevenson | $3.6 million | $422,637 |
It’s clear to see that the Bears can still find various other ways to create cap space for 2026 and gathering interest from around the league this week is smart business. However, things still don’t look good for Moore’s future, regardless of what Poles and Johnson have to say about him.
“This is where we get into those really difficult decisions where you gotta take the emotions out of it,” Poles added talking to Waddle and Silvy. “And kind of put your business hat on. It stinks, I talked about this earlier. When you win, and guys step up like DJ and create these really unbelievable moments that you’ll never forget, and then the next thing you know, you’re asking if they’re going to be on the team or not. It’s really tough. We gotta work through that, it’s going to be a really difficult offseason in terms of emotionally what these guys mean to us.”
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