Is Chicago Bears WR D.J. Moore the next A.J. Brown?
The Chicago Bears pulled off a blockbuster in their trade down from the number one overall pick. The addition of D.J. Moore is huge and may end up being the biggest name wideout traded this offseason. It is hard to say it happened in the same exact manner, but it is easy to compare this trade to the A.J. Brown trade.
Could D.J. Moore give the Chicago Bears an A.J. Brown impact?
Most fans would not put Moore in the tier of A.J. Brown, and that is far. However, it may end up closer than some realize. Moore is just two months older than Brown and has played one more season. Still, below you can see their per-game metric comparison.
This is looking at Brown before he went to the Eagles.
AJ Browns per game stats before he was traded last season compared to DJ Moores current per game stats pic.twitter.com/2P8HRjTXtF
— Bear Goggles On (@BearGogglesOn) March 11, 2023
You can see the comparison is actually very fair. It is notable that Brown has more yards, and touchdowns on fewer catches, but the two are not far off from a per-game perspective. Moore has over 5,000 receiving yards before turning 26 years old. Only Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, Mike Evans, DeAndre Hopkins, Brandin Cooks, and Amari Cooper join Moore as the players to accomplish this. He is impressive in an all-time historical light.
He can be viewed in a similar light to A.J. Brown. The Panthers' offense leaned run heavy when Christian McCaffery was on the field. On top of that, his quarterback play was never even as good as Ryan Tannehill's. Still, the two produced similar numbers.
Beyond the comparison of the players being talented in bad offense, they both have the chance to explode after being traded. For Brown, he was moved to Jalen Hurts. Hurts was ascending, and so was Brown, and the combination struck gold.
D.J. Moore is the same age as Brown, and still ascending on a similar path. We have seen the growth from Justin Fields on full display. Just like Hurts to Brown, two players who were taking off, but needed each other now have the chance to explode.
Next. 5 reasons Bears hit homerun with trade down. dark
Most fans had their eyes on Tee Higgins when they were thinking about the A.J. Brown trade. However, if there is an A.J. Brown trade that happened this offseason, it was D.J. Moore to the Chicago Bears. He may not be quite on the level of Brown, but the fact that he is even close and making it a discussion speaks to the talent that he has.