Buffalo traded a second-round pick for D.J. Moore and a fifth-round pick on Thursday morning. Moore is coming off a disappointing season in Chicago, but playing with Josh Allen could be the medicine he needs to reinvigorate his career. Meanwhile, Luther Burden III, Colston Loveland, and Rome Odunze now have less target competition with Moore on his way out of town. Let’s break this deal down from a fantasy perspective.
D.J. MOORE
- Moore is already familiar with Bills head coach Joe Brady from their time together in Carolina; Brady was Moore’s offensive coordinator in 2020 and 2021. Moore excelled under Brady, going for 66/1,193/4 in 2020 and 93/1,157/4 (on 163 targets!) in 2021. That was admittedly five years ago, when Moore was still an ascending young player — he turns 29 years old in April — but at least we have proof of concept of Moore posting big numbers in a Brady-led offense.
- Even beyond the connection with Brady, it’s an ideal landing spot from an offensive efficiency and target competition standpoint. Any offense with Josh Allen at the helm will be among the best in football, and Buffalo is wholly devoid of outside WR talent beyond Moore. 32-year-old Brandin Cooks was their top outside WR in the playoffs. While Brady is on the record saying he’s one of Keon Coleman‘s top believers, it’s still difficult to expect anything from the former second-round pick after he was in and out of the doghouse during the 2025-26 season. Cooks and Gabe Davis are both free agents, Curtis Samuel is a cut candidate, and Tyrell Shavers is recovering from a torn ACL. Khalil Shakir remains the trusted slot man, but his average depth of target has been 7.9 yards or lower in three straight seasons, and any offense with him as the WR1 likely has a capped ceiling. Despite a disappointing 2025, Moore is immediately the best outside WR on the roster.
- The addition of Moore, however, certainly doesn’t preclude Buffalo from making additional moves at wide receiver. Moore will be 29 years old when the 2026 season kicks off, and he was surprisingly ineffective in Chicago last season. Moore earned just 0.17 targets per route run, averaging five targets and 40.1 receiving yards per game, each of which were career lows. Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland both usurped Moore as the season progressed. Moore was on the field a lot, but he didn’t produce much despite the ample playing time.
- This is clearly a monster upgrade for Moore, going from the WR3 on his own team to vying for WR1 duties (depending on whether they add anyone else at WR), but his decreased production last year is a real red flag. We’ll see how much more the Bills invest in WR this offseason.
OTHER BILLS PASS CATCHERS
- Shakir is no longer the unquestioned WR1 for Allen, but it was obvious before this move that the Bills would make significant additions at wideout this offseason, so that’s not really a surprise. He will still have a sizable role in this offense, but we’ve seen Shakir as the unquestioned WR1 for Allen, and it wasn’t all that useful for fantasy, so falling to WR2 on the depth chart relegates him to later-round flier status. Similarly, this is additional target competition for Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox (Knox is also a cut candidate, for what it’s worth), but again, WR moves were expected here.
- Coleman’s career is in shambles, Samuel is a cut candidate, Shavers is recovering from an ACL tear, and Davis and Cooks are free agents. They do still have Josh Palmer. We don’t know what this WR depth chart looks like besides Moore and Shakir right now.
BEARS PASS CATCHERS
- Per snap, per route, per target, per anything: Luther Burden III smashed it all as a rookie. The 2025 second-rounder earned 0.26 targets per route run, averaged 2.49 yards per route run, and recorded 9.8 yards per target (all via Sports Info Solutions) last year. It was one of the most efficient rookie seasons of the past decade. Interestingly, even amidst his true breakout over the second half of the season, Chicago remained reluctant to give him a full-time role. Burden didn’t have a game in which he played more than 65.7% of snaps. When Rome Odunze missed time with a stress fracture, Olamide Zaccheaus‘ snap rate rose from 17.5% in Week 13 to 74.4% in Week 14. Burden’s rose only slightly from 50% to 61.5%. Jahdae Walker out-snapped Burden in Week 17 when both Odunze and Zaccheaus missed. That’s honestly a pretty shocking aversion to a full-time role for Burden, and it understandably went under the radar because he was still so productive on a per-route basis. Given the draft capital invested in Burden and his effectiveness as a rookie, it should be safe to assume he’ll have an every-down role in Year 2. The lack of playing time is really the only hit on Burden’s profile, though, because everything else was spotless. Burden was targeted on a ridiculous 34% of his routes sans Moore last year. His rookie YPRR puts him in elite company. The efficiency will likely fall in 2026 in an expanded role (and simply because it’s nearly impossible to be that efficient, period), but Moore’s exit frees up another roadblock between Burden and a full-time role.
- Colston Loveland has clearly arrived. He closed 2025 with four games recording at least a 23.8% target share; he was at 0.25 TPRR and 2.14 YPRR as a rookie tight end; and the Bears started playing him on every snap down the stretch. Loveland’s profile is basically flawless, and removing Moore from the equation just gets rid of another target earner. We’ll see if Chicago replaces Moore with another WR — they suddenly have an extra second-round pick — but it was already wheels up for the 2025 No. 10 overall pick.
- Rome Odunze struggled in his second professional season despite the Bears’ offense getting significantly better. Odunze’s yards per target didn’t increase from his rookie year, and while he earned targets at a solid rate (0.23 TPRR), he didn’t do much with that volume and was overtaken by Burden and Loveland by the end of the year. Odunze is still a former early first-round pick who admittedly struggled through injuries as a sophomore, but he’s likely third in the pecking order in 2026. Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams are capable of supporting three-plus pass catchers, but Odunze needs to improve in his third year. Like Burden, though, he benefits from the decreased target competition brought on by Moore’s absence.
- It’ll be interesting to see what Chicago does at WR. They just added a second-round pick. Free agency is still to come. Jahdae Walker impressed in limited reps as a rookie, but he didn’t play much and was unheralded as a prospect. We’ll see.
