Buffalo Bills’ President of Football Operations and General Manager Brandon Beane decided to kick off the festivities of the new league year a bit early this offseason as it was announced Thursday that the Bills will be sending a 2nd-round pick to the Chicago Bears in exchange for wide receiver D.J. Moore and a 5th-round pick when business officially opens up for the 2026 season on Wednesday, March 11, at 4 p.m. ET next week.
The trade, which was announced today by several NFL insiders just around Noon ET, is the type of move that fans have been clamoring for from Beane and company for some years now.
Since trading away the team’s first-round pick to acquire fellow wideout Stefon Diggs back in 2020, Brandon Beane developed quite the reputation amongst those in league circles as being a bit of an aggressive general manager, eventually being dubbed with the playful moniker of “Big Baller Beane.”
Since that fateful March six years ago, however, Beane hasn’t been nearly as aggressive, and the recurring segments of “Beane after Dark” that fans had grown accustomed to viewing over the years had seemingly been pulled off the air.
That stagnation from Buffalo’s front office is no longer, though, as the move to get Moore is about as aggressive of a move as Beane could have made this offseason, especially considering that the University of Maryland alum (oddly enough, that’s also Diggs’ alma mater) carries a hefty contract after signing a four-year, $110 million extension with the Bears in July of 2024.
It was first thought that a total contract restructure could be on the way in order to lower his cap hits this year and beyond, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter quickly added to the report that the Bills will be fully guaranteeing $15.5 million of Moore’s contract in 2028, while his salary next season is already fully guaranteed on top of his 2027 salary becoming fully guaranteed next week on March 13 according to Moore’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus.
So, yes his cap hit will be lowered to around $6.75 million in 2026, but there’s still plenty of real money being ponied up by Buffalo.
With all that said, the move is certainly a lot to take in.
On the surface, it feels as if the Bills may have been a bit bullied by Chicago into consummating a trade that isn’t exactly seen as fair value amongst those around the league, given the player’s age and lack of production last season — he had career lows in receptions (50) and receiving yards (682) — but, there’s also no denying that the Bills severely lacked “juice” in their wide receiver room, and Moore still has plenty left to squeeze.
Possessing 4.42-speed coming out of college, the eight-year veteran is still a threat at all levels of the field, and his “down” year last season seemed to be more so due to a constant lack of connection between Moore and Bears’ quarterback Caleb Williams, rather than a downright collapse in his abilities as a player heading into his age-29 season.
For that reason, there’s still plenty of room for optimism regardless of where you stand on the player’s contractual value and what Buffalo had to surrender in order to gain his services.
Moore is still a player that has managed to start 126 out of a possible 133 games in his career while tallying 619 receptions for 8,329 yards and 43 touchdowns on 992 targets in the regular season and playoffs combined, while also adding 513 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
In the only two playoff games of his career, which came just last year in 2025 with the Bears, Moore posted 115 receiving yards and two touchdowns, with five receptions, 52 yards, and a touchdown coming in Chicago’s thrilling divisional-round loss to the Los Angeles Rams this past postseason.
Add in the fact that Moore posted back-to-back seasons with at least 1,150 yards and 65 catches in 2020 and 2021 when Joe Brady was the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers, and the murkiness that clouded all of the details surrounding the trade of Moore to Buffalo becomes just a little bit clearer.
Speaking with Yahoo Sports’ Matt Harmon last month, the 6-foot, 213 pound former 24th-overall pick of the 2018 draft certainly spoke highly of his soon-to-be new head coach Joe Brady regarding their time together in Carolina.
“With him, I’ve kind of seen the new nuances (he adds) to an offense when he took over the playcalling when he was the OC in Carolina. He had new routes, new concepts — everything. So, I mean, it’s been a joy to watch him in Buffalo with Josh and see what they’ve done. Their offense has been electric,” Moore said in his interview with Yahoo Sports in February.
“It might be year-to-year (with what Joe does in his offense). He might open it up this year, and just go bombs over Baghdad.”
While that certainly sounds like music to the ears of many in Bills Mafia, the proof will ultimately be in the proverbial pudding and whether or not this move can help get Buffalo over the playoff wall that owner Terry Pegula wanted you to know he so badly felt former head coach Sean McDermott couldn’t climb.
So, taking everything into consideration, could the move backfire? Certainly. But, was it worth a shot? Definitely.
Remember, Bills Mafia, beggars can’t be choosers.
Stay tuned right here at the Buffalo Fambase blog for any and all news regarding the Buffalo Bills as we quickly approach the beginning of the 2026 offseason.
Editor’s babble: Many thanks to John Green for all his contributions to our blog. You can also find John on X @JGreen_PRsports.
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