Big Cat Wants To Trade DJ Moore And It's Impossible To Disagree With Him
The Bears didn't trade DJ Moore this year but it's obviously been a weird situation because he doesn't get along with Caleb Williams. Or nearly as much as he did with Justin Fields to the extent we all felt very good about his contract extension. I think Big Cat hits the nail right on the head here even if there's a lot of pushback from casuals that don't live/die with the Bears.
The general ethos is pretty simple to grasp:
1. Seems like a great guy
2. Great receiver
3. But something has been off this year and you can't pretend that's not the case
Not exactly word for word but pretty close to the analysis: DJ Moore obviously liked Justin Fields a lot, especially compared to how he's interacting with Caleb Williams.
I'm not inside the Bears locker room but a lot of rumors center on the fact that Justin Fields was a lot cooler than Caleb Williams. He has a better vibe and is better received by older guys in the locker room. Whether that has to do with Caleb's character-trait-anomalies is too granular and thus outside the scope of my consideration. What I will say is that Justin Fields is a team-first kinda guy with a minimal amount of emotional luggage.
I'm not saying Caleb Williams is carrying extra baggage into Halas Hall. I'm just pointing out the obvious: they're two completely different personalities and we're far enough into the season to recognize DJ Moore vibed much better with Justin.
So now that we're here and Justin is not, the next consideration is looking ahead to a future without Matt Eberflus. Notwithstanding the greatest midseason miracle I've ever witnessed, this Bears team is fuckin cooked. 7 wins much less enough to reach the playoffs seems impossible. So we're looking ahead and that's where I have to agree 100% with Big Cat. If something is wrong the way we perceive it, then the Bears need to move on from DJ Moore.
This is where my NFL contract expertise hits a hard stop. I know the trade deadline is over and DJ Moore is sitting on a large contract. I know there a lot of teams that would immediately take any phone call from Ryan Poles on the matter. And I know Caleb Williams is our only way out of this existential mess. Even if he sucks and the prophecy of our never-ending misery is repeatedly fulfilled. Even if Virginia McCaskey outlives me and Brandon Johnson is our mayor forever. Even under the worst case scenarios anyone can imagine, there's only one way out in the immediate future and his name is Caleb Williams.
If DJ Moore doesn't like him enough to build something good enough, then maybe we don't want DJ Moore around. And I say that knowing DJ Moore is an elite playmaker and downright fucking awesome. Fact is we need a group of guys that want to be around each other and win together and face adversity together and all that shit. There's so much intangible value to be had on a football field and it's obvious the Bears are going backwards from that direction.
How and what that looks like in the future can be decided by the highly-compensated decision makers. For now though I think the DJ/Caleb relationship is in a dogfight with Eberflus's job security to be my #1 Bears story for the 2nd half of the season. There's still time to turn it around but everything says that's not going to happen. Should that be the case then the Bears have no other decision but to trade DJ Moore.
In other news I'll be in the fancy pants Waldron Deck the next two weekends handing out sausages if you're hungry. Mustard, napkins and great tasting/less filling will be readily available at your convenience. Bear Down.