DJ Moore was the Chicago Bears‘ leading receiver by a long shot this past season, but now, he will have some competition in the form of Keenan Allen.
The Bears swung a trade for Allen last week, giving the club a rather dynamic duo in their aerial attack. This will obviously take some targets away from Moore, but Moore insists he is perfectly fine with it.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” Moore said during an appearance on 670 The Score’s Mully & Haugh Show. “I know we’ve both talked about how we’re going to complement each other. So I’m just looking forward to that. It might be a race to 1,000 (yards), but that’s just a friendly competition. At the end of the day, if we’re winning, whoever is catching the ball, I don’t really care.”
Moore hauled in 96 receptions for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns in 2023, setting career highs in every category. Meanwhile, Allen racked up 108 catches for 1,243 yards and seven scores during his final season with the Los Angeles Chargers.
“It was exciting when I saw it and heard about it,” Moore said of the trade. “I was like, ‘Whoa, now we got more weapons for this run we want to make in 2024 with winning games.'”
The good news for Moore is that there are numerous teams around the NFL with a couple of big-time wide outs, and those guys still get their numbers. Take the Miami Dolphins, for example. Tyreek Hill totaled 1,799 yards this past year, and Jaylen Waddle finished with 1,014 yards. The Philadelphia Eagles also had a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
So, Moore may very well still post Pro Bowl-caliber statistics while also being a part of a more competitive ballclub at the same time.
The bigger question is how Caleb Williams—who the Bears will almost surely take with the No. 1 overall pick—will manage in throwing passes to both DJ Moore and Keenan Allen in 2024.
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