Ryan Poles said that he wanted to get a deal done for the number one overall pick before free agency because if the trade involved players, it may affect his plans. That wound up coming to fruition as D.J. Moore was included in the Chicago Bears trade down to number nine.
Did D.J. Moore complete the Chicago Bears wide receiver room?
With Moore, he pretty much completes the starting three wideouts. There is a real question of whether the team will add a wide receiver at all now.
When you look at the room, Darnell Mooney, D.J. Moore, and Chase Claypool are the starters. Claypool and Mooney may be free agents this offseason, so the team may not rule out the draft, Still, it is hard to see them taking a rookie high enough to bump any of them to number four next season, so it will just be a depth flier.
It is hard to see how that depth piece would fit on the roster, too. When looking at it, Equanimeous St. Brown was re-signed. The team loves him because he does the dirty work and plays on special teams. It is hard to see them completely giving up on him.
Finally, they have Velus Jones. Jones actually started to progress on special teams units beyond returnman. When you add in that he is still in his second season, and was a third round pick it is hard to say the Chicago Bears will give up on him that quickly.
They have wide receivers, and the bottom two are going to be active most weeks due to special teams. The truth is that this may be it for the Chicago Bears. They may add a late name, but he is going to struggle to be active on gamedays.
The Chicago Bears will have to decide on the future of Claypool and Mooney, but perhaps that draft class or free agency group will look better. We may be seeing the five players who are active for week one right now. The team can now focus on different positions, because that is probably all they are doing for this spot in 2023.