<\/p>\nMoore 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.<\/p>\n
Whether it was Walker, Cam Newton, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold or a handful of others, Moore prided himself on being consistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always friendly with the QBs and always in the right place at the right time for them,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a blessing to me early in my career,\u201d said Allen, currently a backup with the Bills. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\nDJ Moore did a lot of celebrating on Oct. 5, when he had 230 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Since then, its targets have gradually decreased. Cooper Neill\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\nMOORE DOESN’T DO IT OFTEN<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen he took the time to do that, everyone was listening,\u201d wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said. \u201cThey tweaked what he was saying, and I think we came out the next day and did a lot better than the day before.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 who had masterminded the prank \u2013 footed the bill for a night of bonding with his teammates.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n\nThe best of NFL Nation<\/h2>\n
\u2022 Bears need to use WR DJ Moore more
\u201cWe just hope we continue to give him the ball,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe have good receivers overall, but we have to continue to feed him, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it didn’t always work that way. Moore was targeted twice by Fields during a season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople always talk about the goal,\u201d coach Matt Eberflus said after the game. \u201cIt is important for us to be able to use the ball at our best level. [players]. We need to do a better job there. \u00bb<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has the mentality of giving me the ball so I can make it work, and it\u2019s like a domino effect with everyone,\u201d Mooney said. \u201cHe has that confidence, and the reason he has that confidence is because he works at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time he gets the ball, he plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
ESPN Bills reporter Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/alsosee><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chicago Bears need to use WR DJ Moore more in offense\u060c Courtney Cronin, ESPN editorNovember 9, 2023, 2:59 p.m. Close Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, initially covering the Minnesota Vikings before moving to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4275,5117,5118,4895],"class_list":["post-8251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-bears","tag-chicago","tag-moore","tag-offense"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8253,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8251\/revisions\/8253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}