The Chicago Bears sent shockwaves throughout the NFL on Thursday, as it was announced that the Green Bay Packers' bitter rivals have agreed to send wide receiver D.J. Moore and a fifth-round pick in next month's draft to the Buffalo Bills, with the Monsters of the Midway receiving a 2026 second-round selection in return.
The Packers certainly won't miss having to face Moore, as the former first-rounder caught 34 passes for 394 yards and three touchdowns in seven matchups against Green Bay during his three-year run in the Windy City.
And those last two scores couldn't have come at worse times for Matt LaFleur & Co, as Moore caught that 46-yard bomb from Caleb Williams to secure the Bears' overtime victory in Week 16 and also the 25-yard go-ahead TD in Chicago's 31-27 victory over Green Bay in the Wild Card Round.
So, again, the Packers won't miss seeing him multiple times per year, although they will see him at least once in 2026, as the Bills are set to visit Lambeau Field.
While somewhat surprising, moving Moore certainly makes plenty of sense for the Bears, as the 28-year-old is coming off the worst overall season of his eight-year career and carries massive salary cap hits of $24.5 million over each of the next four years. And with rising stars Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III still on the roster and tight end Colston Loveland leading the team in receiving yardage as a rookie, Chicago is doing just fine in the pass-catching department.
But there seems to be much more in play here, and it certainly didn't take Cheeseheads long to take to social media to voice their concerns about what the Bears were seemingly really doing with this move, which is clearing cap space in order to trade for Maxx Crosby.
The Bears may have moved D.J. Moore to create salary cap space for Maxx Crosby
Rumors have been swirling for quite some time now that the Las Vegas Raiders would eventually end up trading Crosby at some point this offseason, even if the organization publicly stated on several occasions that there were no plans to part ways with the five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher.
As the Bears are undoubtedly in need of an upgrade to their pass-rush attack, they've naturally been one of the many, many teams linked to Crosby in recent weeks. And Maxx himself only added fuel to the fire when he recently had Caleb Williams on his podcast and praised the young QB left and right.
With the new league year right around the corner, the Raiders finally appear willing to trade Crosby, whose cap hits total a combined $121,067,250 over the next four years, so Chicago opening up close to $100 million worth of space over that same time frame certainly has plenty of people chattering. The Bears adding a second-round pick in the Moore deal is also a benefit, as it gives them another bargaining tool to add to a deal with the Raiders to acquire Crosby.
Only time will tell if something comes to fruition, but the Bears have put themselves in prime position to improve on the defensive side of the football, and that's certainly nothing the Packers want to see moving forward.