The Panthers had eight starting quarterbacks — none of them good — in D.J. Moore’s five years there, and he still managed to average 1,000 yards receiving per season. So even though the Bears are rebuilding and quarterback Justin Fields has a long way to go as a passer, Moore likes his chances of thriving here.
“To come to a better situation with a stable quarterback, the sky’s the limit from there,” he said when the Bears introduced him Thursday.
The move should be mutually beneficial. The Bears’ working theory on Fields is that he must improve individually, but he has been significantly hampered throughout his first two seasons. There was all the dysfunction of Matt Nagy’s offense and poor personnel picks by Ryan Pace in his rookie season, then general manager Ryan Poles asked Fields to weather the effects of salary-cap-driven decisions last season.
In addition to playing behind a shaky offensive line, that meant Fields spent the season throwing mostly to wide receivers Poles plucked from the clearance rack.
Byron Pringle, who caught 10 passes, was the Bears’ highest-paid player at the position at $4.1 million. Darnell Mooney was their top talent, but he got off to a slow start and exited in November with an ankle injury. Poles thought he’d give Fields a boost by trading for Chase Claypool, but he didn’t contribute much in his seven games.
Ultimately, none of the Bears’ wide receivers reached 500 yards, and Fields finished last in the NFL at 149.5 yards per game.
Poles liked Mooney and Claypool, but knew that wasn’t enough. Look at the Bengals, for example, with Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. That’s what it takes.
Poles needed someone better than both Mooney and Claypool and found that in Moore, who came over as part of the Bears trading the top overall pick. It helps that he’s also on a very reasonable contract with salary-cap hits of $16.1 million in 2024 and ’25.
Poles was hesitant to trade all the way back to No. 9, but said acquiring Moore made it worth the drop.
Moore would agree.
“Everybody can reach a new level here now that I’m here,” he said. “We’re just going to elevate the offense and elevate Justin at the same time. I’m here to make everyone around me better and we just want to try to get some wins.”
He’s certainly hungry for the latter. When the Panthers drafted Moore out of Maryland at No. 24 overall in 2018, they were coming off a playoff season with former MVP Cam Newton at quarterback.
It didn’t go the way Moore envisioned. The Panthers never won more than seven games and never sniffed the playoffs. It was a mess, making it all the more impressive that Moore kept producing regardless of his surroundings. He topped 1,150 yards in 2019, ’20 and ’21.
And not only is he eager to finally do some winning, but Moore is out to make the Panthers look foolish for bailing on him. He said his reaction was, “Whatever, let’s go,” when he heard about the trade last week.
“They wanted to move up and get rid of me?” he said. “OK, I’m going go somewhere where I’m loved.”
