Is Moore the playmaker Bills desperately need?
Michael Holley and Mike Florio discuss the Bills reportedly trading for DJ Moore and examine the wide receiver's fit with a Buffalo team that desperately needs a big-time playmaker.
Video Transcript
Exactly.
Makes all the sense in the world for the Bears, for the reasons that you said, and also just wanna just go into, DJ Moore's numbers a little deeper too.
Look, you would think that Ben Johnson arrives, he's an offensive guru, he's the head coach, he's the play caller.
Oh, everybody's gonna do better with, with Ben Johnson there at the controls.
Well, the running game certainly was fantastic.
That one-two punch of Manungai and, and, and Swift, I mean, DeAndre Swift, they were great.
Running game great.
Offensive line really, cleaned that up from 2025 I mean, 2024, where it struggled to The, the offensive line in 2025 was great.
Luther Burden came on.
Colston Loveland came on.
Caleb Williams came on.
Who are we missing?
DJ Moore, under Ben Johnson, was even worse.
He was even worse, even though he played all those games, as you said, Mike.
He was even worse in 2025 than he was in '24.
So yeah, the numbers are a part of it, but also the production.
He just wasn't a fit for whatever reason.
I don't know if it was a personality clash.
I don't know if he feels like he's gotta be that top volume guy.
You saw the numbers up there on the chart where he had back-to-back seasons of over 90 catches, and I don't think Ben Johnson saw him that way, and Caleb Williams certainly didn't see him that way.
Now, he leaves Chicago with one of the great plays I've ever seen to end a game against their rival.
I mean, you know, that catch against the Packers to end the game, awesome.
But it clearly was going the other way, and it makes sense, I guess, for Buffalo.
It makes I guess.
And the only reason I say that, Mike, with Buffalo, is you have Alec Pierce on the market, coming on the market for Josh Allen, so you got a guy who can run by anybody in the league, and you got one of the great deep ball throwers in football in Josh Allen.
So I don't know how they evaluated Alec Pierce, but no Pierce, so they take Moore over Pierce, potentially.
They take Moore over A.J.
Brown, potentially, and they stick with DJ Moore.
I don't know.
I, I, I think if I'm going for if I'm really pushing for the Super Bowl, as Buffalo is, I want the best option for my all-world quarterback.
I don't think DJ Moore is their best option.
Well, a couple of points.
And before I get there, I, I wanna mention that from the financial perspective, the Bears were looking at paying Moore 23.485 million this year, fully guaranteed, and there was another partial guarantee for 2027 that kicked in next Friday, another 15 and a half million.
They were looking at nearly 39 million in full guarantees to Moore that they've now avoided, and they free up that money, dollars and cap space.
23, 4.65 this year- and the 15.5 next year, that's gone, that's off the books, for a guy that no longer was fitting into the broader structure.
A guy who, a guy who, dollar for dollar value, we weren't getting the return on what we will be paying because we got these younger guys, we got these other guys, we get, we get more from them for what we're giving to them.
As it relates to the Bills, you mention Alec Pierce, you mention A.J.
Brown.
We talked a lot about tampering in the last segment.
My guess is- Yeah that Brandon Beane, the GM of the Bills, knew when he turned the key on the DJ Moore trade And by the way, none of these trades are official until Wednesday at 4:00 PM Eastern, at which time both teams have to put the key in and turn it.
If it doesn't happen, there's no violation.
There, there will be hurt feelings and frayed relationships, and they're gonna have to work through that, but you know, people get over things.
But either team can walk away.
Somebody can come along with a better deal for the Bears than what the Bills offered, and the Bears could say to the Bills, "Sorry, we're not gonna do this."
And the, the Bills would be very pissed off, but there's no rules violation if it happens, 'cause it's not done until Wednesday.
But I would suspect that Brandon Beane knew exactly what it's gonna take to get Alec Pierce when the market's 40 million and Alec Pierce is gonna be hitting the open market after leading the NFL in yards per catch for the last two years.
And when you factor in what Jesse Minter told us last week at the Combine about how in his view, and the way the league's going, things like turnovers don't mean, mean nearly as much Turnover margin doesn't mean nearly as much as explosive plays gained and explosive plays allowed.
You get a guy who's averaging 20 yards a catch, that's a weapon.
Yeah.
So- Right they know what that's gonna cost.
They know what that's gonna cost to get Alec Pierce, and they presumably have called Howie Roseman, the GM of the Eagles, 'cause he told me last week he's not gonna hang up the phone.
He's gonna talk.
And there's been reporting on what the, the Eagles are looking for, a Quinnen Williams-type package, a one and a two.
So we give up a two, we get back a five, and we get a guy who played for two years with Joe Brady, the new head coach of the Bills, when Brady was the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers.
So, you know, to the extent that free agency brings this concern of acquiring a guy sight unseen and we don't know him, we don't know him.
He's available.
We want him.
We like his film.
We like his production.
We think, we think, we think we'll get along with him.
We think everything we've heard is positive or we wouldn't be doing it.
That's a far cry from, "Hey, I had this guy for two years.
This is exactly who we want.
We're trying to take this receiving corps to the next level.
This is exactly who we want."
So it, it lines up perfectly.
And...And to the extent that D.J.
Moore isn't banging on anyone's door for an increase, at least for now I mean, I've seen all he's gotten is an additional guarantee for 2027, partial guarantee of another 15.5 million.
He gets exactly 23,485 each of the next four years.
The market's 40, and it's gonna be going up.
Now, by next year, D.J.
Moore will be saying, "We gotta talk about my contract."
Yeah.
Right now, yeah.
But for now, 20- when you consider the market and the total payout this year is 23,485, that's not a bad deal for the Buffalo Bills.
Well- And it gives them someone- May- their head coach knows.
May- I, I, I guess it's not a bad deal, for a receiver who Let's go back to D.J.
Moore 2000.
It's not a bad deal for 2023 D.J.
Moore.
is, it is still an overpay for 2025 D.J.
Moore, 'cause if you say the, the top of the market is 40 and he is, you know, almost half that, well, h- he has, he still hasn't He, he's played like, a pretty average receiver, in, in 2025.
Average to even below average at times.
So if he gets that bounce-back year, as you said, Mike, bounce-back year in Buffalo, playing with Josh Allen, and he gets back to the numbers that Joe Brady remembers and, and that he, established that first year in Chicago, yeah, he probably will be looking for a new contract.
But I wonder, Mike, a- and I hope I get the radio station right, I think it's WGAR.
Is it WGAR in Buffalo where Brandon Beane did an interview?
GR.
WGR.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did that interview where he's listening, he's on the line as the hosts are talking about their receivers.
"Hey, how does Brandon Beane not upgrade the receivers?"
And he comes on, "Hey, I heard you guys.
What are you talking about?
Our offense is great."
Or is it, "What, what do you want us to do?
I like our receivers."
Ah, ah, maybe you might wanna call up those hosts and say, "You know, hey, guys, you were right."
It, it's, it's at least an acknowledgement.
It's, it's acknowledging something that everybody except Brandon Beane saw a while ago.
You got Josh Allen, and you have some nice complementary receivers in Buffalo.
I like Khalil Shakir a lot as a number two or number three.
They didn't have a number one, and they kept searching and searching and, and failing.
They brought in Amari Cooper, that didn't work.
I mean, last year they got Brandin Cooks, who's on his, what, seventh, eighth team, whatever it is.
They need somebody, they need an established number one.
I'm not sure they got it here in D.J.
Moore.
He was.
I'm, I'm not sure he's that guy anymore.
But at least Brandon Beane is saying, "Yeah, we gotta do it."
And if he won't come out and say it, his actions speak for him because they gave up a lot to get this guy.
