Bears Trading DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills for Second-Round Pick

The writing was on the wall. Now it's official.

The Chicago Bears are trading wide receiver DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. NFL Network's Tom Pelissero confirmed the full compensation: Buffalo is sending a 2026 second-round pick to Chicago in exchange for Moore and a 2026 fifth-round pick. The trade cannot be officially processed until the start of the new league year next Wednesday.

Moore, 28, posted career lows with the Bears in 2025—50 receptions for 682 yards and six touchdowns in 17 starts—while carrying a $28.5 million cap hit for 2026. With the Bears already $7.4 million over the salary cap before this move, the math made this an inevitability. Trading Moore saves Chicago approximately $16.5 million in cap space.

The Right Move at the Wrong Price

Let's be clear: DJ Moore is a good football player. He never missed a game in three seasons with the Bears—51 straight regular season starts. His debut year in Chicago in 2023 was electric, with 96 receptions, 1,364 yards, and eight touchdowns. He caught the game-winning overtime touchdown against the Packers at Soldier Field on December 20, and then did it again three weeks later with the go-ahead 25-yard score in the Wild Card round that sent Soldier Field into delirium. When it mattered most, Moore delivered.

But the Bears' offense evolved around him. Ben Johnson's system spread the ball around in ways that previous Chicago offenses never did, and the emergence of Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and rookie tight end Colston Loveland fundamentally changed Moore's role. Loveland actually led the team in receiving yards at 713, with both Odunze and Burden topping 650. Moore went from being the clear number one target in 2023 and 2024—with 136-plus targets in each of those seasons—to seeing just 85 targets in 2025. A $28.5 million cap hit for a receiver who is functionally the third or fourth option in the passing game was a luxury this roster simply could not afford.

Why Buffalo Makes Sense for Moore

This isn't just a salary dump landing in a random city. Moore is heading to a situation tailor-made for a bounce-back.

New Bills head coach Joe Brady was Moore's offensive coordinator in Carolina during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, when Moore produced back-to-back 1,100-plus yard campaigns. That familiarity matters. Buffalo has been searching for a true number one receiver since trading Stefon Diggs to Houston in 2024, and their current room—Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Josh Palmer, Curtis Samuel—doesn't have a proven outside threat. Moore gives Josh Allen a veteran target who has been there before, and he'll step into a featured role that had all but disappeared for him in Chicago.

Per Rapoport, the Bills had also inquired with Philadelphia about AJ Brown before pivoting to Moore. Moore comes at a fraction of that acquisition cost.

What This Means for the Bears

This trade is about one thing: resources. The $16.5 million in cap relief gives Ryan Poles significantly more room to address a defense that needs help everywhere. As we've been detailing in our offseason needs series, the Bears entered this offseason with zero safeties under contract, an interior defensive line that allowed 5.0 yards per carry, an edge rush that tied for 22nd in sacks, and—after Drew Dalman's surprise retirement—two holes on the offensive line. Tremaine Edmunds has also been given permission to seek a trade.

Poles is stripping the roster down to its core and redirecting every available dollar toward the positions that will determine whether the Bears can build on last year's NFC North title or watch the window start to close. The second-round pick from Buffalo—along with the Bears sending back a fifth-rounder—is a solid return for a player on a bloated contract, and it adds premium draft capital to a class that already includes the No. 25 overall selection. But the cap space is the real prize here. Legal tampering begins Monday. The new league year starts March 12. The clock is ticking.

The Bears' passing game now belongs to Odunze, Burden, Loveland, and Caleb Williams. All four are 25 or younger. All four are on rookie contracts. And all four showed last season that this offense doesn't need a $28 million receiver to function at a high level. This is the direction the franchise is heading—young, cheap, and built to sustain.

Moore gave this team three solid years. He was part of the trade that brought the No. 1 pick that became Caleb Williams. He helped stabilize a receiving corps that desperately needed a veteran presence. Bears fans should remember him fondly. But this is the business of football, and the Bears just made a move that makes the rest of their offseason a whole lot easier.

Update: This article has been updated with confirmed trade compensation. The Bears will receive Buffalo's 2026 second-round pick and send their 2026 fifth-round pick along with Moore to the Bills.