Handing out Chicago Bears midseason awards (MVP, OPOY, DPOY, and more)

Now that the Chicago Bears have finished ten games and are onto the second half of the 2023 season, it is a good time to look back at the first half of the year and decide which players had the biggest impact. In the standard awards format, we will be handing out awards to see which players were most valuable in each area. 

Chicago Bears Team MVP: D.J. Moore

This one should be pretty easy. D.J. Moore has been the best thing that happened to the Chicago Bears this season. The team has not had a wide receiver at his talent level since Alshon Jeffrey, and at the age and production, Moore has shown he has a chance to be one of the best wide receivers in franchise history.

Yes, it is just ten games, but he has been that good. On a team that has been awful, he has been the bright light all year. Moore is averaging 2.26 yards per route run. That is with Tyson Bagent for four games and Justin Fields working through things behind a banged-up offensive line. 

For his career, he averages 1.98 yards per route run, so he is even better than we could have thought. One of the crazier stats about Moore is the number of targets that turn into a first down.

His career-high entering the year was 48% of his targets going for a first down. In the past two years, he has had 38% and 40% of his targets move the chains. This year, it is up to 51%. Every time you throw the ball to Moore, there is a better chance you move the chains than anything else. That is reliability. That is why he is the MVP.