The Bears star wide receiver needs to show that he’s an elite WR1 that will respond to hard coaching.
There are just two names left to unveil on our list of the 10 Chicago Bears with the most to prove in 2025. Our countdown has seen the names Roschon Johnson, Jaquan Brisker, Gervon Dexter, Cole Kmet, Tremaine Edmunds, all three left tackles, Montez Sweat, and Tyrique Stevenson thus far.
Number two on this list is one of the most popular players on the team. It is DJ Moore.
Moore came over to Chicago from the Carolina Panthers in the spring of 2023 after Ryan Poles made the massive trade, moving from the first pick to the ninth pick and bringing in a haul of picks along the way.
Moore came in and had immediate chemistry with Justin Fields and vibed well in Luke Getsy’s offense. Moore had arguably the best season of his career. He set career highs in receptions, yards, touchdowns, first downs, success rate, catch rate, and plenty of other statistical categories as well.
As the 2024 season rolled along, Moore had a new offensive coordinator in Shane Waldron and a new quarterback in Caleb Williams.
The 2024 season didn’t get along with Moore quite like the 2023 season did. If you didn’t watch the Bears last season and just looked at Moore’s stat line, you certainly wouldn’t think there was an issue.
Moore had more targets and more receptions than he did in 2023, but when you dive deeper, you’ll see that Moore’s yards per reception plummeted from 14.2 (similar to his career average) to 9.9. His success rate also dropped 12% from 2023, despite his catch rate remaining a similar number.
What did that mean? It meant that Moore’s action in 2024 wasn’t down the field at all; he spent most of his time catching wide receiver screens and fighting for yards on poorly blocked plays.
Moore is difficult to tackle and is one of the best tackle breakers at wide receiver in the entire league, but that’s only one aspect of his game. Moore also has excellent downfield ability, and that part of his game was completely missing last season.
That misuse created a much different DJ Moore on the field than we saw in 2023. Moore’s attitude was far worse. Moore consistently had poor body language on the field, would sit for a few seconds on the ground with his arms wrapped around his knees before he would get up and jog back to the huddle, and that culminated in a really bad look against the Arizona Cardinals.
With a play breaking down and Caleb Williams in the middle of a scramble drill, Moore walked off the field and sat down on the bench before the play was over. Moore would later defend himself, saying he had hurt his ankle and had stepped out of bounds, so he had become an illegal receiver and was just helping Williams out. But anyone who watched how Moore headed to the bench knows that this was not done to be a good teammate; this was a frustrated player who wasn’t interested in competing at that particular moment.
Moore’s attitude took a lot of Bears fans by surprise (myself included). Moore seemed like a leader on a team and someone who had an infectious positive attitude. Moore’s 2024 issues seem to be a reflection of the entire team, but he seemed far more public about his displeasure than many.
Enter Ben Johnson and a new outlook on the offense in 2025. Johnson likes to build an offense to his players’ strengths so one would think we will see a DJ Moore that resembles the 2023 version far more than the 2024 version, but I also think Johnson has made some previous comments that while they may not have been directed straight at Moore, he was certainly in the group that Johnson was eluding to.
“No block, no rock.”
Moore has always been the primary target on the offense. While that should still be the case this season, Johnson expects a buy-in on all aspects, including getting into defenders and blocking them on plays where they aren’t involved. This isn’t something Moore has had to do much of in the past. Will it be an issue?
If it is an issue, that’s where Moore’s future with the team could come into question. Luther Burden holds a very similar skillset to Moore, and if the rookie looks like he could be a special player and Moore’s buy-in isn’t where Ben Johnson wants it to be, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Bears move Moore next offseason.
If the Bears decide to trade DJ Moore with a post-June 1 designation next year, they can distribute his dead cap over three seasons ($4 million per), and the incoming team would get Moore at a bargain rate of $24.5 million for four seasons.
I’m not saying that’s the probable outcome with Moore, I’m saying that’s a possible outcome if Moore doesn’t buy in.
Moore was one of the players who went to Ryan Poles and told him the next coach needed to hold players more accountable. With that being said, you would think Moore would buy into what Johnson wants to do.
Moore’s a smart player, and he should also know that playing with a dynamic play-caller like Johnson can only help his career moving forward.
Moore needs to show that 2024 was just an unfortunate blip on his career and that the 2023 version is the one that Ryan Poles extended and wanted to be a part of this team for six years moving forward.
The expectation is that Moore proves just that and becomes a key part of Ben Johnson’s offense, but if Moore doesn’t buy in and his body language continues to look like it did in 2024, there will be some difficult conversations about Moore’s future in Chicago after this season.