Going back months, into last season, it was inevitable that the Chicago Bears would trade wide receiver DJ Moore this offseason. Multiple potential suitors could have been made to make sense, and they ultimately sent him and a 2026 fifth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills for a 2026 second-round pick.
The Bears ultimately traded down from that extra second-round pick, No. 60 overall. But that pick helped foster maneuverability around the draft board Ryan Poles might not have had otherwise. In that way alone, it proved to be a great trade for Chicago.
And the Bears were, of course, able to offload Moore's significant salary, which was no longer aligned with his role in the offense as he was usurped in the pecking order.
Bill Barnwell goes all-in on easy sentiment about DJ Moore trade
ESPN's Bill Barnwell has tabbed what he sees as the best and worst offseason move for each AFC team.
For the Bills' worst move, he went with "everything that happened with DJ Moore."
"Every step of the Moore process felt like a franchise acting out of desperation. It's clear that the Bills were frustrated by their wide receivers in 2025, as players such as Brandin Cooks, Gabe Davis and Tyrell Shavers were getting meaningful reps late in the season. Keon Coleman, who hasn't lived up to expectations on the outside, became the public scapegoat for what felt like an organizational policy of trying to hit singles at one of the league's most important positions."
"Under that lens, making a significant move for a receiver made sense. I'm just not sure this was the right one. 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."
"Instead, the Bills sent a second-round pick to the Bears for Moore. That was already a curious choice by Beane. Even more inexplicably, the Bills ate all of the salary that was already owed to Moore and then guaranteed their new wideout $13.5 million in 2028, committing money three years down the line to a player who had no leverage as part of this trade. If Moore had a no-trade clause or was about to become a free agent, making that sort of move might have made more sense."
As the offseason approached, the Bills were easy to see as a team; the Bears could fleece in a Moore trade. General manager Brandon Beane survived the firing of head coach Sean McDermott, with an additional job title to boot.
The pressure is on Beane to make additions that can get the team over the hump to a Super Bowl while Josh Allen is still at the peak of his powers, and a big move to acquire A.J. Brown from the Philadelphia Eagles never seemed likely.
The leverage the Bears had in trade talks about Moore was rooted in the number of teams that could've been eyeing a wide receiver addition, but weren't likely to pony up for Brown whenever the Eagles are ready to trade him. On the trade front, that likely left those teams vying for Moore, and the Bills may have had to beat another offer that was on the table.
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With a bigger role available to him, Moore should do just fine in Buffalo. Performing at a level that'll fully justify the cost to acquire him is a different question, though, and even months later, it's clear the Bears won the trade by a healthy margin.
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