The Chicago Bears are likely going to be without Justin Fields this week as they take on the Las Vegas Raiders. It will have fantasy managers wondering what to do with D.J. Moore. Moore had been a must-start, especially after two monster games. He fell back to earth due to the quarterback issues against Minnesota.
Now, they are relying on a rookie UDFA making his first career start for Moore to produce. Should the fantasy football manager start D.J. Moore in week seven against the Las Vegas Raiders? We think you should.
3. D.J. Moore has performed with bad quarterbacks before
Yes, the whole point of drafting D.J. Moore this season was the possibility that he would be getting a quarterback upgrade for the first time in his career. However, the reason that was so often discussed was that he did not have a good quarterback for the entirety of his career.
The list of quarterbacks that Moore played with in Carolina include Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Taylor Heinicke, Kyle Allen, Will Grier, Teddy Bridgewater, and P.J. Walker. That is an old Cam Newton on his last shoulder as well. Even when you add Justin Fields to this list, he may be the best quarterback Moore has played with, but you could argue Moore has yet to have good quarterback play. Even with Tyson Bagent, as rough as he may be, could he at least be as good as Kyle Allen or Will Grier? Allen started 13 games with D.J. Moore.
Despite that, Moore has averaged over 67 yards per game in his career and hit 1,000 yards in three of his first five seasons.
All that D.J. Moore knows is bad quarterback play and yet he continues to produce. It may take more than Tyson Bagent to hold him back.
2. The Chicago Bears face a bad secondary in the Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders defense has not been good this season. That may help D.J. Moore this weekend. Moore will square off with Marcus Peters and Jakorian Bennett. Both of them are attacked often and for good reason.
Peters is at the age where his game is diminishing. On the flip side, Bennett is just seeing his game take off, but he is not quite ready, as he is just a rookie. Teams are testing Peters to see what he has left, and they are testing Bennett to see what he knows. Both are leading to big plays.
Wide receivers like Kendrick Bourne, George Pickens, Christian Watson, Gabe Davis, and Josh Palmer have had over 60 yards against this secondary. Some of those names are not the most imposing. We saw what D.J. Moore can do against weaker secondaries in the Washington Commanders. This secondary may be worse than that on paper.
While Bagent cannot get the ball to Moore as Justin Fields did, it also did not take much for Moore to get over 100 yards. A screen could lead to big yards after the catch, and one double-move by Moore could be 60 yards. At times, all Justin Fields had to do was sit in the pocket for a second and not throw a bad pass, and Moore handled the rest. Tyson Bagent will not be as good as Justin Fields, but D.J. Moore has dealt with worse, and he is playing a bad secondary. He should have a fine performance.
1. Tyson Bagent will force the ball to D.J. Moore
If there is one thing we saw from the Chicago Bears' loss to the Minnesota Vikings, it is that Bagent knows where to go when the pressure is coming. He threw an awful interception by forcing a ball to D.J. Moore, but the Bears would rather see him trust Moore than not. Of course, a better pass is needed, but that can come when less pressure is on Bagent and he has a playbook designed for him.
Tyson Bagent threw 14 passes on Sunday, and six of them went to D.J. Moore. If he throws nearly half of his passes at Moore, it is going to be a big day some way or the other. Moore caught four passes for 44 yards, and it could have been a bigger performance as well. All of that came from late in the third quarter, and it came with Bagent coming in off of the bench cold.
If the Chicago Bears are trailing, they are going to pepper Moore against this secondary. It may be ten catches on 20 targets, but Moore will find a way to produce. Fantasy football managers should trust this.