Bills agree to acquire Bears WR DJ Moore, sources say
Courtney Cronin
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Courtney Cronin
ESPN Staff Writer
- Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, initially overlaying the Minnesota Vikings earlier than switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever and GameNight on ESPN Radio. She additionally co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She beforehand labored on the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports activities journalist.
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The Bills landed a brand new prime goal for quarterback Josh Allenagreeing to a commerce with the Chicago Bears to acquire huge receiver DJ Mooresources instructed ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Thursday.
Buffalo is sending a 2026 second-round draft choose to Chicago in trade for Moore and a 2026 fifth-round choice, sources instructed Schefter.
The Bills might be guaranteeing $15.5 million of Moore’s $23.5 million base wage in 2028, brokers Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey instructed Schefter. Moore’s $23.5 million base wage in 2026 is absolutely assured, and his 2027 base wage, additionally $23.5 million, turns into absolutely assured subsequent week.
The commerce can not formally be processed till the brand new league 12 months begins subsequent Wednesday.
Moore, who turns 29 on April 14, might be reunited with new Bills head coach Joe Brady. I’ve performed underneath Brady with the Carolina Panthers when Brady was the crew’s offensive coordinator in 2020 and for a lot of the 2021 season. (Brady was fired in December 2021.) Two of his greatest seasons got here underneath Brady in Carolina, together with averaging a career-high 18.1 yards per catch in 2020 and totaling over 1,100 receiving yards each years.
Bills president of soccer operations and normal supervisor Brandon Beane additionally traded for a large receiver in the course of the 2020 offseason, giving up a first-round choose as a part of a deal for receiver Stephen Diggswho performed for the group for 4 seasons.
The huge receiver place was a major want for the Bills this offseason given an absence of consistency on the place all through the 2025 season. Moore will be part of a receivers room for the 2026 season that has some query marks relating to their standing outdoors of Khalil Shakirtogether with Keon Coleman, Joshua Palmer and Curtis SamuelMoore’s former Panthers teammate.
Moore was traded to Chicago as a part of a bundle that despatched the No. 1 choose to the Panthers in 2023. His prompt reference to former Bears quarterback Justin Fields netted a profession 12 months for Moore, who churned out 1,364 receiving yards and eight touchdowns throughout his first season with the Bears.
But for the reason that 2023 season, Moore’s manufacturing has dipped, the byproduct of latest offenses, new playcallers and a brand new quarterback. During Caleb Williams‘ rookie season in 2024, Moore had a career-best 98 catches for 966 yards and was as soon as once more the crew’s main receiver, however the 2025 season led to a job change for the 2018 first-rounder.
The emergence of tight finish Colston Loveland together with huge receivers Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III led Moore to a profession low in catches (50) and receiving yards (682). Two years after the Bears gave the receiver a four-year, $110 million contract extension — the most important in franchise historical past — Chicago sought a means to create area amongst a crowded crop of move catchers.
Moore’s sturdiness was amongst his greatest belongings in the course of the 2025 season. With Odunze sidelined for 5 video games due to a foot damage and Burden’s emergence starting on the halfway level of the season, Moore performed all 17 video games and was on the receiving finish of among the best catches of the season, together with a 46-yard walk-off landing in additional time to beat the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 20.
