After committing to Justin Fields as their starting quarterback in 2023 and beyond, the Chicago Bears got to work upgrading the roster around him. Fields has had an underwhelming supporting cast of weapons in the passing game thus far in his career, but that will change this upcoming season.
The biggest move that the Bears made this offseason was trading the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft to the Carolina Panthers. They picked up multiple draft picks in return, in addition to wide receiver D.J. Moore.
Moore instantly legitimizes the passing game in Chicago, giving Fields a true No. 1 option. Darnell Mooney and Chase Claypool can now slot in behind him, providing the pieces for what could be a potent passing attack.
Since stepping foot in the facility, Moore has been showcasing just how big of an upgrade that he will be. Rookie wide receiver Tyler Scott has been very impressed by what he has seen from the veteran Moore thus far, saying he has performed like the No. 1 guy he was brought in to be.
“DJ Moore, being a teammate, he is everything advertised and more,” Scott said in a recent episode of the Under Center Podcast, via NBCSportsChicago.com. “He plays with such a calmness to him, just a control to him — and football players know what that looks like. And he just plays under control. And it’s not necessarily like he’s playing slow or behind, he just plays like he knows what he’s doing. You can tell he’s experienced in what he does.”
There is a lot that a rookie such as Scott can learn from an established player such as Moore. What has impressed the fourth-round pick out of Cincinnati the most thus far has been the precision that Moore runs his routes with. He is able to conceal what his breaks off of the line of scrimmage are to keep defenders guessing about what kind of route will be coming.
“I can watch him one play and think, ‘Oh, he’s about to run an in-route,’ and it doesn’t look like an in-route,” Scott said. “Or he’s about to run a different route and it looks exactly like how it did before. So he just knows how to mirror things up, how to make everything look the same. And he just plays with such a subtleness and control about him, he’s just playing at a different level than everybody. So that’s something that I really love to watch with him.”
What Moore has been able to accomplish this far in his career is quite impressive as the quarterback situation in Carolina hasn’t always been the best. Kyle Allen, Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield and P.J. Walker are some of the primary starters that the Panthers had under center during Moore’s five seasons with the team.
Moore is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL that doesn’t have a Pro Bowl appearance yet on his resume. The 2018 first-round pick out of Maryland has three 1,000-yard campaigns to his name and set a career-high with seven touchdown receptions in 2022.
Now, he is hoping to be the next wide receiver that helps a young quarterback take his game to another level as Fields looks ready to truly break out in 2023.
