Report: Poles Would Not do the Bears-Panthers Trade Without D.J. Moore
No, I’m still not over yesterday’s Bears-Panthers trade.
I won’t be for a while. Not only did Poles obtain his enviable cache of picks, he did the improbable and secured a bona fide WR1 for Justin Fields in the process. We all knew that’s what he/we wanted most in any deal for the No. 1 overall pick, but it just didn’t feel particularly likely. Especially after we saw Tee Higgins and Keenan Allen removed from the trade block before whispers could fully get out.
In fact, I was pretty much accepting of the fact that any legitimate WR upgrades were going to have to come via the Draft (free agency was also a possibility, but not quite as significant). Instead, the Chicago Bears are getting DJ Freaking Moore to be their WR1. What a heist.
And credit goes to GM Ryan Poles. Not just for pulling it off, but for sticking to his stance on insisting Moore’s inclusion:
Kudos to Poles for not veering off course. Some general managers would’ve began angling for another receiver. Others would’ve moved on altogether. Poles stuck with it.
I doubt Carolina was trying to push their best receiver out the door … while simultaneously trying to trade up to the first pick, presumably to select a quarterback who could very much use a receiver exactly like him.
Think about what Moore brings to the table. A three-time 1,000-yard receiver while catching passes from Kyle Allen, Will Grier, Teddy Bridgewater, P.J. Walker, Sam Dalton, and a past-his-prime Cam Newton. Guys like Moore don’t hit the market often. And you definitely don’t want to trade them when you’re about to build around a rookie quarterback.
But you have to give a little to get a little in trade discussions. And at the end of the day, the Panthers had to trade a lot to ultimately move from picking ninth to picking first.
Michael Cerami contributed to this post.
