Bears rookie shares high praise for WR D.J. Moore

To members of the Chicago Bears, wide receiver D.J. Moore is much more than an asset who helped the Carolina Panthers acquire Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young this spring. 

"D.J. Moore, obviously, being a teammate, he -- man -- he's everything advertised and more," Bears rookie receiver Tyler Scott said during a recent appearance on the "Under Center" podcast, per Bobby Kownack of the official NFL website. "Like he plays with such a calmness to him. Just the control to him...But it's not necessarily like he's playing slow or behind. It's just, he just kind of plays like he knows what he's doing. You can tell he's experienced in what he does...He's just playing at a different level than everybody."

Back in March, the Bears traded the 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick to the Panthers for Moore, choices No. 9 and No. 61 this year, a 2024 first-round selection and a second-round pick for 2025. Carolina later drafted who that organization hopes will prove to be a long-term franchise quarterback, while Chicago landed a veteran who could assist signal-caller Justin Fields as Fields looks to cement himself as his team's QB1 beyond the upcoming season.  

Fields spent portions of this offseason attempting to improve as an overall passer ahead of becoming eligible for a contract extension as early as next winter. In Scott, a fourth-round pick, Fields has an additional pass-catcher who will look to take some targets away from the likes of Moore, Chase Claypool, Darnell Mooney and tight end Cole Kmet. 

"I can watch him one play and think, 'Oh, he’s about to run an in-route,' and it doesn’t look like an in-route," Scott added about Moore, according to Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. "Or he’s about to run a different route and it looks exactly like how it did before. So he just knows how to mirror things up, how to make everything look the same. And he just plays with such a subtleness and control about him, he’s just playing at a different level than everybody. So that’s something that I really love to watch with him."

Moore tallied a career-high seven touchdown catches with Carolina last season but also finished with 63 total grabs for 888 yards after he recorded 93 catches for 1,157 yards and four scores the prior campaign. Moore ideally will receive favorable matchups with Chicago's offense as coaches work to determine what they either have or don't have in Fields during the young quarterback's third NFL season.