The Buffalo Bills have acquired wide receiver DJ Moore and a 2026 5th round pick from the Chicago Bears in exchange for a 2026 2nd round draft pick.
The Bills also announced that they will guarantee $15.5M of Moore’s base salary ($23.5M) in 2028. This will be in addition to his 2026 salary which is fully guaranteed, as well as his 2027 salary which becomes fully guaranteed next week. The deal cannot become official until the new league year begins next Wednesday.
The soon to be 29 year old instantly becomes Buffalo’s WR1, and gives Josh Allen a veteran pass catcher who can stretch the field. Bills head coach Joe Brady is already familiar with Moore’s game, having previously worked with the wideout in Carolina when he was the team’s offensive coordinator between 2020-21.
Moore joins a wide receiver room in flux in Buffalo as the team has been searching for stability at the position since the departure of Stefon Diggs following the 2023 NFL campaign. Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Joshua Palmer, and Curtis Samuel have all flashed at moments, but have been unable to perform at a high level consistently over the last two seasons.
With the emergence of pass catchers Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland, Chicago clearly felt comfortable moving on from Moore as they look to free up space for a big offseason splash. By trading Moore, and subsequently releasing linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, the Bears suddenly have much more financial flexibility than they did at the conclusion of the 2025 campaign.
Those two moves, coupled with centre Drew Dalman’s surprise retirement announcement on Wednesday have freed up an estimated $44M in cap space.
That cap space comes before the team begins the annual restructuring of contracts which will inevitably create even more room for GM Ryan Poles to go big game hunting. And there’s perhaps no bigger name on the trade market at the moment than Raiders’ star pass rusher Maxx Crosby, who has been linked to Chicago in a potential deal for weeks.
Adding a player of Crosby’s calibre would be a massive boost for a team who ranked 26th in the NFL last year with 35 sacks on the season. The 28 year old is currently under contract through 2029 and will earn a base salary of $30M in 2026.
Any team looking to add the pass rusher will need both financial flexibility, as well as draft capital to spare in order to acquire him. Something that Chicago is now well positioned to explore should Las Vegas ultimately decide to move on from the franchise star.
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