DJ Moore had a solid run as a Chicago Bear, but the worst-kept secret heading into this offseason involved him being traded. Thankfully, it came to fruition quickly, with the deal that sent him to the Buffalo Bills.
Moore's role in the offense was no longer justified by the financial investment attached to him, and the Bears needed the cap space they cleared via trading him. Of course, the move, as moves like that tend to, came with a noticeable dead money hit ($12 million). But in this case, to open up money and opportunity for others, it was an easy cost of doing business for the Bears.
Moore, reunited with former Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady in Buffalo, is lined up for the kind of role he was never realistically going to have again in Chicago. That's what we call a mutually beneficial move.
Bears are set to get fantastic return on WR investment in 2026
According to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis, the Bears currently have the fifth-cheapest wide receiver room in the league with $21 million in total salary cap obligations. Technically, per Spotrac, accounting for 12 players on the current pre-training cap roster, it's $20,991,508 in total cap obligations.
A lot of that bargain-dollar figure is driven by the Bears taking a wide receiver in each of the last three drafts (Rome Odunze, Luther Burden and Zavion Thomas) and thus not needing to make a big dip into the free agent market to replace Moore. Another part of it is simply what trading Moore yielded, in terms of sheer cost savings
Of course, that number doesn't include the $12 million in dead money the Bears took on by trading Moore. But the point stands.
The Bills restructured Moore's contract after acquiring him, which greatly reduced his cap hit this year. But then he'll, as things stand right now, carry a $28.94 million cap hit in each of the next three years. There's a fair chance the entire Bears' wide receiver room doesn't equal that cap hit in 2027, with Odunze set to carry the largest cap number right now.
There are a lot of "ifs" involved. If Burden has the second-year breakout everyone is expecting. If Odunze can get on track to justify his status as a top-10 overall pick. If others (Thomas, Kalif Raymond, Jahdae Walker) can make notable contributions when called upon.
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But even if just one or two of those things come to fruition this year, let's go with Burden's breakout and Odunze putting it together if we have to pick two; the Bears will get the best return on their investment at wide receiver in the entire league.
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