Bears are trading DJ Moore to Bills, per reports -- and will receive a 2nd-round draft pick

Sean Hammond, Chicago Tribune on Mar 5, 2026

Published in Football

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CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears are trading wide receiver DJ Moore and a 2026 fifth-round draft pick to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick, NFL Network and ESPN reported Thursday.

In doing so, the Bears are trading a player who not long ago they saw as a big part of their future. However, last season young playmakers Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland emerged as top targets in coach Ben Johnson’s offense.

Moore, 28, had his moments in 2025 too — none bigger than a walk-off touchdown in overtime against the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 20 at Soldier Field — but he seemed to disappear at times. Moore caught one or zero passes in five games last season.

He totaled 50 catches for 682 yards and six touchdowns in 2025. In three seasons in Chicago, he had 3,012 yards and 20 touchdowns on 244 receptions in 51 regular-season games.

The Bears loved Moore’s toughness. He never missed a game after the team traded for him in 2023 and hasn’t missed a game since 2020. The decision to move on from him likely had more to do with his contract.

Moore signed a four-year, $110 million extension in summer 2024. At the time, he still had two years remaining on his current deal, so the extension was set to hit the books in 2026. He was due to cost $28.5 million against the salary cap this year.

Trading him won’t free up all of that money, but it will save the Bears about $16.5 million against the cap. With cap space tight heading into 2026, that money could be spent elsewhere as the Bears prepare to lean on the young pass-catching talent they’ve assembled. Teams can begin negotiating with free agents at 11 a.m. Monday.

The second-round pick received from the Bills is No. 60. By swapping the fifth-round pick for the second-rounder, the Bears retain seven total picks: one in the first round (No. 25), two in the second (Nos. 57 and 60), one in the third (No. 89), one in the fourth and two in the seventh. The order of the later-round picks will depend on how the NFL divvies up compensatory picks.

The Bears remain hopeful they could receive comp picks after assistant general manager Ian Cunningham’s exit to become the Atlanta Falcons GM, but that’s undetermined.

Trading Moore brings an abrupt ending to the relationship that began when the Bears traded the No. 1 draft pick to the Carolina Panthers in March 2023. General manager Ryan Poles prioritized adding a veteran talent in that deal, which also netted the pick that became quarterback Caleb Williams. Moore was that veteran talent.

Moore had a career-best 1,364 receiving yards and eight touchdowns the following season with Justin Fields at quarterback. But after the Bears drafted Williams with the No. 1 pick in 2024, Moore never quite reached that level of output with his new quarterback.

Asked last week at the NFL combine about the possibility of trading Moore, Poles didn’t rule it out.

“I have nothing but great things to say about him,” Poles said at the time. “But this is the time now where we have to look at all the different scenarios to see what can allow us to put the best team out there.

“And I’ve talked about this before. There are relationships there. There’s a lot there that makes it really, really difficult. He’s a guy we want here. But we have to look at all the different scenarios.”

Now the Bears are moving on without him — while Moore gets a chance to play for one of the AFC’s top teams. The Bills have been searching for a top receiver for quarterback Josh Allen, the 2024 league MVP, since trading Stefon Diggs after the 2023 season.

Moore has experience with new Bills coach Joe Brady, who was the Panthers offensive coordinator in 2020 and ’21. Moore topped 1,100 receiving yards in both of those seasons.

Moore is entering his ninth NFL season, having played his first five with the Panthers after they selected him with the 24th pick of the 2018 draft out of Maryland.