Every time it seems the Bears have no excuse for some shortcoming, such as failing to get their best and highest-paid player the ball, they try to scrape one together.
There’s plenty wrong with them heading into a home game against the Broncos on Sunday, but failing to make the most out of wide receiver DJ Moore is high on the list. On a roster of maybes, he’s the surest thing.
Yet Moore has just 11 catches for 170 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Justin Fields has targeted him 15 times (66th in the NFL after Week 3). On six occasions this season, a receiver has gotten that many targets in a single game.
Given all the Bears’ offensive flaws, including total futility in the passing game, getting the ball to Moore is common sense.
“When you have a player like that, you always want to give him the ball, but defense knows that,” Fields said. “It’s not like they don’t know he’s probably our best receiver, so just like last [week], they’re gonna put two guys over him. They’re gonna cloud his side.”
Do it anyway. Defenses always try to take top receivers out of the game. The Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, the Raiders’ Davante Adams, the Eagles’ A.J. Brown and others get the ball regardless. They don’t have conversations like this.
Moore even got 8.3 targets per game over his final two seasons with the Panthers, and those teams were awful.
Asked later about getting Darnell Mooney more involved, Fields was annoyed.
“Y’all say we’re not getting the ball to DJ enough, and then, of course, Moon, and next it’s going to be Chase [Claypool], and then it’s going to be [tight end] Cole [Kmet],” he said. “We have a lot of playmakers on offense. Everybody’s not going to be able to get 15 targets a game.”
Not everybody. Just Moore.
He’s a true No. 1 receiver. Get him the ball 10-15 times per game and let everything else sort itself out.
Don’t listen to the Bears when they try to convince you that’s difficult.
This is where coach Matt Eberflus must intervene. Although his background is in defense and he ideally wants offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to be mostly autonomous, Eberflus is the one ultimately responsible. Defensive-minded or not, he’ll be fired if the offense never gets rolling. He seems to grasp that.
“When you’re not doing as well . . . certainly I’m getting involved,” Eberflus said. “I’ve been involved in that. . . . There’s been a little bit more time on it because it’s important for us to get that going for us to win this game.”
Pressed specifically on whether he gives Getsy directives, such as making sure Moore gets 10-plus targets, Eberflus phrased it as “We put our heads together” but indicated he doesn’t hesitate to make sure Getsy is clear on what needs to happen.
He could do that with Moore. It sounds as if his message to Getsy and Fields is that Moore needs the ball early.
“We obviously have to target him, as well as the other skill on our team,” Eberflus said. “That’s one of the conversations we’re having as a group, is being able to in the first [15] plays of the game really target those skill players, and DJ’s one of those guys.”
He’s the guy. That’s the whole point. General manager Ryan Poles traded for him because the Bears didn’t have anyone like him, and then Moore backed that up on the field the entire offseason. He averaged more than 1,000 yards per season with the Panthers. If he could produce through the Panthers’ quarterback parade of Kyle Allen, P.J. Walker and Will Grier, he can do it with Fields.
The simplest, fastest way for the Bears to give their offense even the slightest spark is to make absolutely sure their best player gets the ball. And there’s no question who that is.
