DJ Moore, the NFL’s most underrated receiver in 2023, got the big deal he deserved

NFL: Chicago Bears OTA
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

There’s a ton of excitement surrounding the Chicago Bears offense coming into the 2024 season. First overall draft pick Caleb Williams seems in line to break a 75-year streak of giant whiffs at the franchise quarterback position; the Bears haven’t had a true team-defining signal-caller since Sid Luckman retired in 1950. Not great if your quarterback drought is older than rock and roll, but it is what it is.

In addition, Chicago gave Williams more receiver talent than perhaps any Bears quarterback has ever enjoyed – Washington receiver Rome Odunze with the ninth overall pick, reliable route professor Keenan Allen in a trade with the cap-strapped Los Angeles Chargers, and better-than-average tight end Cole Kmet, who has already been through it with several iterations of whatever the Bears’ passing game is from moment to moment.

And then, there’s receiver DJ Moore.

Moore was initially thought to be an accessory at best in the massive 2023 trade that gave the Carolina Panthers the right to select Bryce Young with the first overall pick in that draft. But after one season, Moore has proven to be the most valuable part of the equation. Yes, the Bears were able to bag Williams with the first overall pick the Carolina Panthers wound up gifting them, but there’s no projection with Moore’s value as there is with Williams’ – in his sixth NFL season, Moore had by far his best overall performance. Moore had three straight 1,000-yard seasons with the Panthers from 2019 through 2021, so his abilities had been established to a degree.

But 2023 was the first season in which Moore became that most coveted of beings – an absolute No. 1 alpha receiver. Overall, he caught 96 passes on 132 targets for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns. And given the paucity of the Bears’ passing game overall, Moore did everything he possibly could to transcend that trend. Per ESPN Stats & Information, he was responsible for 39.9% of his team’s receiving yards, which led the league. Outside of tight end Cole Kmet (who had 73 catches on 88 targets for 719 yards and six touchdowns), no Bears receiver had more than 34 catches, and that was running back Roschon Johnson.

“Our best player[s have] got to be our hardest workers, and they’ve got to be our best finishers and they’ve got to be available to practice out there, and DJ certainly is that,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said of Moore in June. “He’s as tough as they come, and he is a great teammate, and he is our hardest worker, and one of our most talented guys.”

Moore caught 16 passes of 20 or more air yards on 32 targets in 2023, which made him one of the NFL’s most prolific deep receivers. No other Bears receiver caught more than five deep passes, and that was Kmet on seven targets. Moore tied with CeeDee Lamb of the Dallas Cowboys for third in deep receptions behind Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins and Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he made Justin Fields into a much better deep passer.

Fields completed 18 of 51 deep passes for 624 yards, seven touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 89.4 during the 2022 seasaon. With Moore in the fold last season, Fields completed 23 deep passes on 52 attempts for 673 yards, eight touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 114.6 – sixth-best in the NFL among quarterbacks taking at least 50% of their teams’ snaps. .

The difference was all the difference.

Now, with Fields off to Pittsburgh to compete with Russell Wilson, Moore has been re-upped as he should have. On Tuesday, it was announced that Moore signed a four-year, $110 million contract extension with $82.6 million guaranteed. It’s the biggest contract in franchise history for one of the NFL’s inaugural teams, and Moore’s guaranteed money is the third-highest among receivers, behind only Justin Jefferson’s $110 million, and A.J. Brown’s $84 million.

Moreover, and perhaps most impressively, Moore becomes the first player in NFL history to have the first 10 years of his career fully guaranteed in a financial sense, which probably has Kirk Cousins engaging in retail therapy at his local Kohl’s.

“I’m extremely excited to be able to re-sign DJ,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said in a statement after the deal was done. “We all know he’s an impact player and a difference-maker for our offense, but his leadership and professionalism make him a cornerstone of our franchise.”

The Bears have made the statement they needed to make: Moore is their top target, and he deserved the money that goes along with it. But how has Moore, selected by the Panthers with the 24th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Maryland, ascended to this lofty perch?

It’s a lethal combination of speed, toughness, and technique.

Moore has the rare and highly-prized ability to take a defender downfield, and at the ideal moment, turn on another gear to blow right by that defender. This is the rarest form of receiver separation on the field; the burning vertical component that defines passing games if it’s there, and is sorely missed if it isn’t.

Moore had the NFL’s fifth-most targets outside the numbers last season (69), and he proved able to beat some of the game’s best cornerbacks in true iso roles. Martin Emerson of the Cleveland Browns got zapped on this 27-yard catch in Week 15. A little slow-play stutter-step at the line of scrimmage, speed down the boundary, and then, that adjustment to the ball at the end, which also shows off Moore’s contested-catch abilities.

Moore was just as dangerous as a part of route combinations – this Week 17 catch against the Atlanta Falcons had Moore showing cornerback A.J. Terrell (one of the best press cornerbacks in the league) what happens if you take one false move against him from the slot. If you’re not in phase, you’re cooked.

Moore’s combination of vertical juice and route understanding makes him particularly tough to deal with if you’re in off coverage – then, Moore can run through the coverage, leverage the cornerback, and he was more than willing to get grimy in short spaces. Most of Moore’s reps against more passive defenders just looked too easy. Minnesota Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy got the worst of it on this 36-yard catch in Week 12.

In two games against the Detroit Lions last season, Moore was at his best as a true technician. This Week 14 deep catch had Moore treating cornerback Jerry Jacobs like an overmatched offensive lineman who was about to get himself upended by hand technique. A great way to beat press coverage, if you can pull it off.

Moore had already taken Jacobs to the woodshed in Week 11 with that extra gear.

Moore is also as versatile as you could want any receiver to be from a route perspective; last season, he was just as adept at getting extra yards from hitches and slants as he was bombing enemy defenses with digs and posts and corner routes and over routes. 550 of his 1,364 yards last season came after the catch. In Week 5, he demolished the Washington Commanders’ defense with eight catches for 230 yards and three touchdowns; rookie cornerback Emmanuel Forbes was Moore’s huckleberry on quick comebacks, which was how 141 of those 230 yards came after Moore secured the ball.

DJ Moore may not have the big name other top receivers do, but the Bears clearly know how valuable he is to what they want to accomplish on offense. Perhaps with more justified attention given to Chicago’s aerial attack in 2024, we’ll all finally see that this contract wasn’t an overestimation of Moore’s talent – it was simply the Bears’ understanding that he’s the force multiplier in what should be a fascinating offense to watch.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus unless otherwise indicated).



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