The Bears' DJ Moore conundrum — pass or play?

When Zach LaVine returned to the United Center on Wednesday night with the Sacramento Kings against the Bulls, his performance was all too typical. He led his team with 30 points, shot 12-of-19 from the field (63.2%) and had a season-high game score of 24.1. Yet his on-court scoring differential was minus-23 points and the Kings lost 126-113 — never closer than 10 points in the fourth quarter.

It was just one game, but still a snapshot of LaVine's confounding NBA career — no matter how productive LaVine was with the Bulls and no matter how the Bulls tried to build a core around him, they struggled to find success. In eight seasons with the Bulls, LaVine averaged 24.2 points per game and made two All-Star teams, but the Bulls were a combined 247-347 (.416) with one playoff appearance — losing to the Bucks in five games in the first round in 2021-22. Typifying his luck, LaVine missed Game 5 of that series with COVID-19, and the Bulls lost.

In fact, in LaVine's 11 NBA seasons, that's his only playoff appearance. His four playoff games in 11 seasons (659 regular-season games) are the fewest for a player averaging 20 points in a career of five or more NBA seasons in the last 30 years.

It doesn't make sense. LaVine checks many of the boxes of a player who should be a winner. He's a good guy. He's a team guy. He's productive. But for whatever reason, his game seems to inhibit team development. Either that, or he's been at the wrong place at the wrong time for 11 consecutive NBA seasons.

Bears wide receiver DJ Moore can feel LaVine's pain. Moore checks many of the same boxes of a player you can win with — a good guy who speaks his mind but doesn't make waves and is productive and consistent.

Moore's 7,074 yards since his second season in 2019 are the sixth most in the NFL in that span (behind all the big names — Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, Stefon Diggs and A.J. Brown). His 529 receptions in that span rank seventh in the NFL. He makes plays downfield, but can turn small plays into big ones with his knack for escaping tackles.

And it doesn't matter who is throwing to him. Moore is only the second player in NFL history with 1,000 receiving yards or more with six different quarterbacks — a particularly impressive accomplishment considering he has 7,862 career receiving yards in 121 career games over eight NFL seasons.

And the quarterbacks are not Hall of Famers — past-his-prime Cam Newton (1,135), Kyle Allen (1,081), Teddy Bridgewater (1,009), Sam Darnold (1,200), Justin Fields (1,109) and now Caleb Williams (1,297). Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald is the only other player with 1,000 yards with six different quarterbacks (including Hall of Famer Kurt Warner) — but Fitzgerald played in 253 games over 17 seasons, with 17,492 career receiving yards.

But despite being an affable, quarterback-friendly, team-friendly player, Moore has found team success elusive. He's never been on a winning team in seven full seasons in the NFL (a career record of 42-64-1 including this season with the Bears).

And now, with the Bears on the rise under Ben Johnson, Moore's star seems to be fading as he struggles to form chemistry with Caleb Williams. After setting career-highs with 1,364 yards, eight touchdowns and 80.2 yards per game with Justin Fields in 2023, Moore had 98 receptions, but for just 966 yards (a career-low 9.9 yards per catch) with Williams last season.

Even in Williams' second season, Moore is getting left behind as Willams — 26 receptions for 331 yards and one touchdown in seven games. Moore's 47.3 yards per game this season are a career low — lower than even his rookie season in 2018 (49.3 yards per game) when he was a part-time player for the first six games of his career.

It's a strange turn, considering how quickly — like immediately — Moore bonded with Fields when Moore arrived in Chicago in 2023. In 12 games that Fields played from start to finish, Moore averaged 91.8 receiving yards. In Williams' 24 complete games over two seasons, he's averaging 54.0 — lower than any of the quarterbacks he's played 10 or more complete games with in his career.

Moore's current plight was captured in a span of five plays against the Ravens on Sunday. With the Bears trailing 30-16 with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter and hustling for a touchdown that would give them a chance for a miracle comeback, Moore made a spectacular one-handed catch down the right sideline for a 42-yard gain to the Ravens 3-yard line with 1:47 to go — but failed to get out of bounds (with the Bears out of time outs), costing 29 precious seconds. Four plays later, on fourth-and-goal from the Ravens' 1-yard line, Williams's pass to an open Moore in the back of the end zone was way off when the two misconnected — Moore stopping his route when Williams thought he would keep going.

The misconnection with Williams and Moore lacking the presence of mind to step out of bounds fuel more doubt about Moore, despite his success and overall value — just as running out of bounds and giving up on the play when he tweaked his ankle against the Cardinals last year did.

Moore was unbothered by the criticism for that play. "The noise, I hear it. Seen it. Really didn't care. It is what it is," he said following that game. In fact, nothing really bothers him. That's part of the DJ Moore package. He's a different kind of cat. He's a mellow kind of guy who comes across as an anti-diva — generally a really admirable trait in a wide receiver. But he's still prone to make plays that invite skepticism.

To wit: In 2022 with Carolina, the Panthers trailed the Falcons 34-28 in the final minute when Moore caught a 62-yard touchdown pass from P.J. Walker with 12 seconds left in regulation that should have given the Panthers a victory. But Moore took his helmet off in celebration of the big play and was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. The 15-yard penalty pushed the PAT back to the 30-yard line, and Eddy Piñeiro's 48-yard kick was wide left. The Panthers lost 37-34 in overtime.

The following season, after Moore was traded to the Bears, the Chiefs had a similar situation when cornerback L'Jarius Sneed took his helmet off to argue a call in a game against the Vikings. Not only did Sneed not get an unsportsmanlike penalty, but the side judge told him, "Put your helmet back on."

That incident infuriated football fans who were tired of the seemingly preferential treatment the Chiefs have gotten from the officials during their dominant run with Patrick Mahomes. But the one person who had the most legitimate reason to be upset about it — DJ Moore — didn't care.

"I was like, it's whatever," Moore said the following week. "You've got some refs that follow the rules and some that just go above and beyond the rules. I don't know if it was the [same] crew. I don't really care."

That's DJ Moore. He's not a diva. He's not a hot head. He's just a mellow guy. Maybe a little too mellow. It's a little mystifying for Moore to seemingly finally be in the right place at the right time, yet his production is declining with Caleb Williams in Ben Johnson's offense. Maybe it's him. Maybe it's Williams. Maybe it's the Bears. It might be all three. But with the Nov. 4 trade deadline approaching, the Bears shouldn't be too hasty. Until further notice, they are still better with DJ Moore than without him.

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