The Bills were expected to be big-game hunters in free agency when it came to wide receivers. As it turned out, they didn’t even wait that long. Buffalo is acquiring DJ Moore and a 2026 fifth-round pick from the Bears for a 2026 second-round pick, CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones confirmed. The trade can’t be officially processed until the new league year on March 11, but for all intents and purposes, it’s the first of what could be several notable wide receiver moves this offseason.
Moore, 28, started his career with the Panthers as a first-round pick in 2018 and posted three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons from 2019-2021, the latter two coming under then-offensive coordinator and now-Bills coach Joe Brady. After 2022, Moore ended up in Chicago as part of the trade that netted the Panthers the 2023 No. 1 overall pick, used to select Bryce Young.
Moore had a monster debut season in the Windy City: 96 catches for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns. He has not hit 1,000 yards since, but he’s now the bona fide No. 1 in Buffalo, which has needed a top outside option for Josh Allen since trading away Stefon Diggs two offseasons ago.
Here’s how both teams fared in a major swap just days before free agency begins.
Bills: B-
How one views Moore, and, in turn, this trade, is a matter of perspective. Can he still be the explosive downfield threat who also has plenty of after-catch juice — the player who had four seasons of 1,150+ receiving yards in a five-season stretch from 2019-23? Or is he more what he showed in 2025: 50 catches (on 85 targets) for 682 yards, both career lows?
The answer is likely somewhere in between, with a slight lean towards the more optimistic range of outcomes. Moore’s strange 2024 (98 catches but for just 966 yards and a career-low 9.9 yards per reception) can almost entirely be thrown out due to the Bears’ offensive incompetence. In 2025, Moore didn’t have as big of a role, but several metrics pointed to a bounce-back year, including his yards per reception jumping up to 13.6, more in line with his career average. His 8.0 yards per target was his second-best over the past half-decade, as was his 22.4% explosive-play per target rate.
That’s what Moore is being asked to do: Bring explosiveness to Buffalo. In 2025, Allen’s average completion to a wide receiver came just 6.8 yards downfield. That was the second-lowest number in the entire NFL, only one-tenth of a yard ahead of last-place Jaxson Dart. The year before, Allen’s number was actually lower at 6.7. Think he missed a wide receiver who could make things happen downfield?
Moore can do that. To what degree remains to be determined. In Moore’s monster 2023, he caught 12 passes on “Go” routes. In 2025, he caught exactly one pass on that route, a career low. Of course, he was only targeted on that route six times, compared to 26 times in 2023. Moore had nine catches on throws that traveled at least 20 yards downfield last year; no one on the Bills had more than three.
Long story short, Moore fills the need of “outside wide receiver with downfield ability.” And this wasn’t just a need. It was a desperate need, one so desperate that the Bills gave up a second-round pick for a wide receiver coming off a career-low year, turns 29 next month and counts heavily against the cap (though Buffalo has some options in that regard).
Familiarity is also a factor here. Moore averaged 18.1 yards per catch in Carolina in 2020, Brady’s first season there. He does not quite present as that player any more, from his drop in explosive plays to his lowering yards after catch. But he is still a decent No. 1 wide receiver, one who not only helps the Bills’ offense add a new dimension but helps it simply make sense. Khalil Shakir can go back to being a quick-game, YAC-based slot player, rather than a fulcrum of the passing offense. Tight ends Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox can fall in line, and James Cook remains one of the league’s best backs.
General manager Brandon Beane got the Bills into this wide receiver mess. He’s trying to get them out of it. The Bills still have questions there and elsewhere, but they’re closer now than they were.
Also, don’t discount the fifth-round pick the Bills received. For all his faults, Beane has found several late-round gems.
Bears: B
Ben Johnson has never been shy about acquiring the players he wants during his short span as Bears head coach, and moving Moore means two players he did draft — 2025 second-round wide receiver Luther Burden III and 2025 first-round tight end Colston Loveland — are about to step into the limelight. Same for one young pass catcher he didn’t draft — 2024 first-round wide receiver Rome Odunze.
Moving Moore may have been on the wall for a bit. This move clears up $16.5 million in cap room for Chicago, per Spotrac. Moore isn’t the route technician of Amon-Ra St. Brown nor the elite speedster of Jameson Williams, two wide receivers Johnson used well as Detroit’s offensive coordinator. In Odunze, Johnson has a big wide receiver who was off to a great start in 2025 before injuries started to play a role, and in Burden, Johnson has a shifty, talented player who can win all over the field and make people miss with the ball in his hands. Add in Loveland and fellow tight end Cole Kmet, and Johnson still has plenty of weapons for Caleb Williams at his disposal.
More than anything, this trade takes away from one area of excess and allows the Bears to add to the free-agent budget and another early pick. Chicago was somewhat hamstrung financially before this move, and that’s with several key 2025 contributors — safeties Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker and cornerback Nahshon Wright — all set to hit free agency. Despite making a major jump last season, the Bears still need to stock (or restock) a defense that finished 27th in success rate last year. Keep in mind, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds is seeking a trade as well.
Overall, the Bears get younger, cheaper and, in their eyes, hopefully more balanced. Ryan Poles now has more free agent spending flexibility plus three draft picks in the top 60 to add to the defense or an offensive line that suddenly needs a center. While the wide receiver corps becomes very thin after Odunze and Burden, Chicago should benefit from this in the long run.
Three players in the spotlight
We hope you bought Burden stock a while ago, because it’s skyrocketing right now. After a slow start, the Missouri product gradually worked his way onto the field, and when he got there, he shined. His 2.71 yards per route run was the best mark by any rookie wide receiver in the past decade. He finished third among all players in 2025 in average YAC over expected, behind only Rashee Rice and DK Metcalf. He is shifty, he is fast, he is smooth, he is a lot of fun. Can he be reliable and consistent for all 17 games?
Odunze flashes occasionally, but he played in just 12 games last year, and he is yet to live up to his No. 9 overall pick billing. He has caught just 98 of his career 191 targets; the 51.3% reception rate is the lowest among 66 players who have at least 150 targets over the past two years. Williams’ inaccuracy is partly to blame, but Odunze’s had some drops as well, and his contested-catch abilities haven’t been quite as good as desired. Odunze’s adjusted yards per route run of 2.18 is 46th out of 51 wide receivers with at least 150 targets over the past two years — coincidentally two spots higher than Moore. It’s time for Odunze to step up.
Moore isn’t a perfect WR1, but he is a big step up from *checks notes* some combination of Josh Palmer, Keon Coleman and Brandin Cooks.
For as much blame as wide receivers get for Allen’s limited downfield passing production of late, Allen has a 29.1% off-target rate when throwing to receiver 20-plus yards downfield since 2023. That’s not a bad number, but it’s also a far cry from his 22.1% from 2021-22.
If the first part of Allen’s career was improving his accuracy and decision-making, the second part was ascending to being accurate all over the field and the third part was becoming a hyper-efficient short-game thrower, he has to rediscover that touch downfield. The Bills hope Moore’s presence will allow him to do so.
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