Bears finalizing WR DJ Moore trade to Bills to clear cap space — could Maxx Crosby be next?

The DJ Moore era in Chicago is over, its end hastened by a salary cap crunch and the receiver playing a position where the Bears have sufficient depth.

The Bears were finalizing a trade Thursday that would send the wide receiver to the Bills, a source confirmed. The Bears will get the Bills' second round pick in return and give up their own fifth-rounder. It's unclear if the Bears are paying down any of Moore's salary in the deal. The move can’t be made official until the start of the league year Wednesday.

Trading Moore frees up $16.5 million in salary cap space in 2026. Dealing him allows the Bears to re-route that money to other needs. Among their targets could be Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby, who is frustrated with his franchise and could be traded. He's set to have a $35 million cap hit next year. The Bears are the odds-on favorite to land him — at least in the minds of gamblers.

In three years with the Bears, Moore had 244 catches for 3,012 yards. He ranked 14th in the NFL in both catches and yards during that span. His 20 touchdowns were 13th-most among wide receivers. Moore's best season came with Justin Fields, and not Caleb Williams. Now he'll be teamed with the Bills' Josh Allen.

New Bills head coach Joe Brady was a Panthers assistant from 2020-21, when Moore played there before being acquired by general manager Ryan Poles part of the haul for the 2023 first overall pick.

Moore was considered expendable because of the price of his contract. He’s about to begin the four-year, $98 million extension he signed at the start of the 2024 season, and is set to make $23 million in 2026 and $24.5 million in 2027. That’s the sort of salary the Bears can use to fill other holes — center, left tackle, defensive tackle, defensive end and safety.

The Bears have identified pass rush as their biggest offseason priority, and Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson will be a free agent next week. He played for Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen in New Orleans.

The Bears also need to find a replacement for Drew Dalman, the center who abruptly retired this week, with Tyler Linderbaum the top player available. They'd like to re-sign safety Kevin Byard before the start of the league year, too.

The Bears figure to cut linebacker Tremaine Edmunds if they can't trade him. Doing so would save $15 million in cap space next year.

A week ago, the Bears’ brass wouldn’t close the door on trading Moore. Both Poles and coach Ben Johnson were quick to praise him — "He's a guy we want here," Poles said — but stopped short of saying he was safe. The Bears had to negotiate through their list of possible scenarios, Poles said, as they balanced their cap sheet and looked to improve the team.

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

The Bears admired Moore's toughness — he didn't miss a game despite spending the night in a Washington, D.C., area hospital after being hit below the belt by the Commanders. Despite sometimes dubious body language, Moore was considered the anti-diva by his teammates, a rarity for a receiver.

Moore caught the Bears’ game-winning overtime touchdown against the Packers in December, though, which was named  the NFL’s 2025 Next Gen Stats Moment of the Year. 

The Bears season ended shortly after Caleb Williams threw an interception in overtime on a pass to Moore he described as a miscommunication.

Moore had one catch in three of the Bears final five regular season games and less than 50 receiving yards in 11 of 17 games. In the postseason, he totaled 11 catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

He finished with 50 catches for 682 yards, both career lows.

The Bears have drafted pass-catchers in the first two rounds of the last two drafts — receivers Rome Odunze and Luther Burden and tight end Colston Loveland — who can now step into his place.

“I know at some points it was slow, some moments,” Poles said of Moore’s season. “Towards the end of the season was amazing. I think when you looked at the production across the board of all our guys it came out to be pretty even in terms of targets and yards. So I thought he did a really good job.

“I know Ben was very intentional with getting him the football to create opportunities. But when you have Colston start to pop up, Luther, [tight end] Cole [Kmet], Rome was going through different things throughout the season, but started hot early, so a unique situation overall. But I know we were happy with him throughout the entire season.”