HEADLINES

Bears Sign WR D.J. Moore To Extension

July 30th, 2024 at 10:01pm CST by Ben Levine

D.J. Moore is sticking with the Bears long-term. The wideout has agreed to a four-year, $110MM extension with the organization, reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The deal includes $82.6MM in guaranteed money.

Moore still has two years remaining on the extension he inked with the Panthers back in 2022, although his guaranteed money was about to dry up. Moore’s extension locks in a lot more guaranteed cash, and it also keeps the veteran tied to Chicago through the 2029 campaign.

Moore’s first season with the Bears couldn’t have gone much better. After the wide receiver was dealt from Carolina in the trade involving the top-overall pick, the three-time 1,000-yard receiver put together the most productive season of his career. Despite inconsistent play from Justin Fields (plus four starts of Tyson Bagent), Moore finished the year with career-highs in receptions (96), receiving yards (1,364), and total touchdowns (nine).

With top-overall pick Caleb Williams now under center, the Bears will continue to lean on Moore. Of course, that didn’t stop the organization from adding more talent around their franchise quarterback, with the team bringing in both Keenan Allen and ninth-overall pick Rome Odunze this offseason. Still, Moore is entrenched as the WR1, and Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times passes along that the organization was making sure Moore was satisfied with his contract even before they added Allen’s significant cap hit. ESPN’s Courtney Cronin adds that the front office wasn’t “necessarily going to go in order of who’s up next for contract,” and they decided to push Moore ahead of other extension-eligible players.

The Bears also managed to avoid the $30MM average annual value mark that was exceeded by the likes of Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown, and Amon-Ra St. Brown this offseason. Moore’s $27.5MM AAV will only come in seventh at his position, although that chunk of guaranteed cash will only trail Jefferson and Brown. Moore himself noted that he was not overly interested in putting himself near the top of the heap in terms of AAV but was (wisely) more interested in guaranteed money.

“You’ve got to follow it,” Moore said of the dizzying heights the WR market has reached with respect to annual averages (via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk). “They’ve all been breaking new heights, going to 35 (million per year), but I wasn’t really in that mindset to go to the top-top. I was just like, What’s a good number? Let’s go from there.”

“Security,” Moore added. “The guaranteed money was awesome. That was the main part I loved out of the whole thing.”

Despite Moore’s focus on the guaranteed cash, his deal does represent the richest contract in franchise history in terms of AAV, as Schefter notes. Montez Sweat and his $24.5MM previously held that honor. Moore was unable to crack Khalil Mack‘s $90MM in guaranteed money, although that was part of a six-year extension.

With Moore’s contract now added to the market, the likes of CeeDee Lamb and Brandon Aiyuk will only have more examples to cite in their pursuit of new contracts.

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