Chicago Bears need to use WR DJ Moore more in offense

CHICAGO — DJ Moore was walking down his driveway in Charlotte, North Carolina, to pick up a shipment of packages when his phone rang. It was late in the afternoon of March 10 and the Carolina Panthers called to inform Moore that he was being traded to the Chicago Bears in exchange for the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft.

Having just signed a three-year extension in March 2022, the wide receiver didn’t expect to make a move. Despite a lack of stability at quarterback in Carolina, Moore was a model of consistency. His 5,201 receiving yards in five seasons rank fourth in Panthers history, and no receiver in Bears history has more.

Moore returned to his house and began to think about what awaited him. Chicago has not been a good destination for receivers. In fact, this year marks the 15th anniversary of when another former Carolina player, Muhsin Muhammad, said Chicago was the place where “receivers go to die.”

“I’m going to try to bring it to a new standard,” Moore told ESPN in late September. “It’s my point of view.”

When he faces the Panthers on Thursday (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), Moore is once again his team’s best receiver. And once again, he’s on a team that has issues in the passing game as the Bears rank 24th with 190.6 passing yards per game.

Part of the problem is that, despite how good Moore is, he’s underutilized. While his 735 receiving yards rank sixth in the league and he’s tied for seventh with five touchdowns, he’s tied for 20th in targets with 62. It’s a problem that seems to have a logical solution, which was identified by Bears coaches and players. but for various reasons, targeting Moore was not easy.

And that’s been a problem for both starting quarterback Justin Fields, who has missed the last three games with a dislocated right thumb and will also miss Thursday, and backup Tyson Bagent, who will start against the Panthers.

Moore’s 62 targets lead the Bears — tight end Cole Kmet is second with 50 — but Chicago has the sixth-lowest success rate in the NFL with 32 percent of their throws coming at or behind the line of scrimmage. And QB play continues to be a problem. The Bears hoped Moore would help accelerate Fields’ passing efficiency development, but Fields ranks 26th with a 37.7 QBR. Bagent’s QBR is 52.3, but he hasn’t played enough games to qualify for a championship ranking.

“I’m aware of the fact that DJ is our guy,” Bagent said Wednesday. “He’s our X-factor, and I have to do a good job getting him the ball.

“Other than that, I play the game, follow the progressions, do my best to move the chains and be successful on offense.”

Moore has seen double-digit targets once this season, with Fields at QB, and it led to a 230-yard, three-touchdown performance in a 40-20 win over the Washington Commanders, one of two victories of the Bears. In the Bears’ other win, Week 7 against the Las Vegas Raiders with Bagent starting, Moore had nine targets and eight catches for 54 yards.

The 6-foot, 210-pound Moore was targeted on 22 percent of his routes, which ranks him 77th. When the ball comes to him, he makes it count. According to Next Gen Stats, Moore is 10.1 receptions above expectation, which is the second-highest mark in the NFL.

“Give the ball to DJ, man,” Bears receiver Darnell Mooney said after the win over the Commanders. “Give the ball to DJ.”

EX-PANTHERS QUARTERBACK PJ Walker watched his pass travel nearly 70 yards through the air inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on October 23, 2022.

When the ball left Walker’s hand, he had a 16.9% completion probability. Given who he was throwing to, Walker liked his chances. Moore, who was double-covered, justified that confidence by diving into the end zone for the touchdown pass.

“He’s one of those guys you have to find on the football field,” said Walker, who now plays for the Browns. “If a play is called for him and he’s partially covered, you can still give him the opportunity to make that play.”

The Bears quarterbacks may want to subscribe to this philosophy. Coverage issues have been cited after games this season to explain Moore’s low target rate.

Moore recorded 1,110 receiving yards from 2019-21 in Carolina while catching passes from eight different quarterbacks. He’s had the same number of QBs throw him the ball during his standout Maryland career, including four in 2017 when he set the school’s single-season receptions record with 80.

Whether it was Walker, Cam Newton, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold or a handful of others, Moore prided himself on being consistent.

“I’m always friendly with the QBs and always in the right place at the right time for them,” Moore said. “They know that no matter what, if the ball goes up, either I’m going to catch it or no one is going to catch it.”

Kyle Allen, who began his career with Moore in 2018, was very impressed with Moore’s sense of space on the court. Moore didn’t write lines on paper, Allen said. When Allen ran through his reads, Moore was looking for space to get open when he shouldn’t have been able to.

In 2022, Moore accounted for 48.7% of the Panthers’ air yards, the highest air yard share in a season since 2016, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. And since entering the league, he has gained the fifth-most yards among receivers after the expected catch with 529.

“He was a blessing to me early in my career,” said Allen, currently a backup with the Bills. “If I didn’t know where to go with the ball, I would just give him the ball and he would find a way to catch it, break tackles, do something with it.”

MOORE DOESN’T DO IT OFTEN raise his voice or express his frustrations, but the way his unit trained during a difficult few days for the early August offensive prompted the soft-spoken leader to put his foot down.

“When he took the time to do that, everyone was listening,” wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said. “They tweaked what he was saying, and I think we came out the next day and did a lot better than the day before.”

But Moore hasn’t been all business. At a receivers’ dinner during joint preseason workouts in Indianapolis, rookie Tyler Scott thought he’d pay a bill for $20,501.81. Instead, Moore – who had masterminded the prank – footed the bill for a night of bonding with his teammates.

Moore was a teacher even though that was not his intention. During one of the Bears’ first OTA practices of the spring, cornerback Jaylon Jones was guarding Moore at the 2-yard line when the receiver ran a fade route. Jones didn’t even know the ball was coming until he looked and saw Moore grab it with one hand and quickly tap with both feet in the back of the end zone.

Jones ran to the sideline where he was greeted by cornerbacks coach Jon Hoke. This is the NFL, Hoke told Jones. You’re going to face players like this, and sometimes he’s going to win because he’s so talented.

Jones took it upon himself to study what he was doing which led to Moore’s easy completion. He learned that Moore’s technique transcends putting DBs to sleep with his releases and being patient while tracking the ball. Moore also studies a cornerback’s leverage and watches his feet.

“We just hope we continue to give him the ball,” Jones said. “We have good receivers overall, but we have to continue to feed him, that’s for sure.”

But it didn’t always work that way. Moore was targeted twice by Fields during a season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers.

“People always talk about the goal,” coach Matt Eberflus said after the game. “It is important for us to be able to use the ball at our best level. [players]. We need to do a better job there. »

Since the Week 5 win over Washington, Moore hasn’t received more than 55 yards in a game. His targets gradually decreased, from nine in the win over the Raiders to six and five against the Chargers and Saints, respectively.

Bagent would be wise to look in Moore’s direction, especially on deep balls. Moore has the tenth-deepest route depth in the NFL (14.3) and has run 112 vertical routes (10th most), but he has only been targeted 19 times in those situations (9 catches). He ran 94 routes with at least 3 yards of separation when the quarterback threw the ball, but was targeted on only 31 of those plays. One obstacle is that the Bears are pressured at the fifth-highest rate in the league, which has led them to the sixth-lowest average for air yards when pressured.

Still, Moore is the Bears’ best playmaker, and as Mooney said after the win over Washington, it might be time to give him the ball.

“He has the mentality of giving me the ball so I can make it work, and it’s like a domino effect with everyone,” Mooney said. “He has that confidence, and the reason he has that confidence is because he works at it.

“Every time he gets the ball, he plays.”

ESPN Bills reporter Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.