Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Dan Wiederer reflects on receiver DJ Moore's tenure with the Bears

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Dan Wiederer of The Athletic to break down the Bears’ trade of receiver DJ Moore and a fifth-round pick to the Bills in exchange for a second-round pick. Wiederer also reflected on Moore’s legacy with the Bears.

How gratifying is it when you win that battle and get the football thrown to you? What? Does it please you? I mean, is that some spot, dude? It doesn't please me, but it's good to see. Good to hear him out there doing that. And that means he's doing growth. Oh, man, now we won't have any more awkward moments between Dan Weiderer, Mark Grody, and DJ Moore.

That's the greatest hits album right there. There's more than that, too. Is there? Well, I mean, just there's a DJ more lifetime of interesting back and forth between myself and DJ or weedsy and DJ. He's an interesting character. Dan and I talk a lot about him on and off the air, just the sort of care. I don't even know if character is the right word, an interesting individual who was a good Chicago bear. He was a good Chicago bear.

And now he is set to be traded. We got the information not just from Adam Schaefter, but the details from Tom Schaefter, but the details from Tom Pelliserro. The Bears will receive a 2026 second round pick. DJ Moore in a 2026 this year, fifth round pick. Go to the Bills. And that is the exchange. We bring in Dan Weirer, the partner of the Take the North podcast with Mark.

He's a senior writer for the athletic covering the bears on our hotline here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Dan, what is your initial reaction to this? Yeah, man, it's been a busy week here for the Chicago Bears. And I had the sense coming out of the combine that their headlines in the short term were going to be more subtractions than additions. We've had two big subtractions from the Bears' offense here in the last 48 hours. Eventually they're going to start trying to fill those holes and trying to figure out how to solidify a championship contending roster. It felt like this was kind of the momentum that was building in terms of DJ's exit. And I think that the return that the Bears got back should make them feel pretty encouraged,

because now they will have four picks in the top 90 to go make some hay in the draft. Yeah, I love the idea of the Bears getting a second round pick. The initial thought was a mid-round pick, so I was thinking it was going to be a third or a fourth, which I guess you could have lived with, but a second-round pick feels really good. It's interesting, Dan, because you and Kevin Fishbane, we had just been talking about your article where you guys had cited sources from personnel, people from the Combine. Kind of, kind of going to the good and the bad of DJ Moore, making some massive catches, but also it was not a productive year relative to what DJ Moore usually does,

and the chemistry has always been just, I guess, spotty with Caleb Williams. Yeah, it was going back to the week in London, where DJ had kind of brought up the word bossy, if you remember. Yeah. You remember that. Sure. And it was that was sort of the first sign that, like, these guys weren't able to get on the exact same page

as consistently as everyone would have liked them to. And so it just, for whatever reason, didn't. click. You know, DJ's got a different kind of style as a player. Obviously, I think the Bears probably assessed the lack of click there in making the decision that they made here. And now, again, like, this is a move that is going to up the pressure on Roma Junzee, right? Like, this is a guy that you drafted in the top 10. Well, now you've got to become a top 10 pick, you know, in season three in the NFL, like, you've got to become the guy for this offense. Coastal level will be part of that mix as well, obviously, Luther Burton as well. So you,

you do have ways to offset the loss of DJ more. But, you know, it's really hard to subtract really good football players from your team and feel great about it. And so over the last couple days, the bears have had to do that. And now, like I said, they've got, you know, six weeks here. And obviously the next week with some very intense decisions ahead to try to figure out what routes they want to take to build this thing up. Dan, given that this news happened within, you know, a couple days of the Drew Dalman news, When you consider that part of it, how much do you think, if any, that had a factor in the bears needing to move at the time their highest paid player? Yeah, I don't think the two are connected.

Like, I think the DJ decision was kind of, like I say, the momentum had kind of been building in that direction. The wind was blowing that way for a little bit. And they're probably two independent things. But again, these are two really good players, right? It's a Pro Bowl center and a receiver who's threatened to 1,200 yards a bunch of times. in his career. I do think it's notable that the new bills coach, Joe Brady, was the offensive coordinator in Carolina for two years when DJ was really ascending. And so, like, you know that that's some informed insight coming from Buffalo and saying,

okay, like, with what we're trying to do here now in our next phase and trying to get Josh Allen to a Super Bowl, we feel like this can come in and work with what we're having to do. And so it's not a sort of leap of blind faith by the bill. They've got experience with Joe Brady and DJ Moore. So that part of the storyline is interesting as well. Well, and some of the other reports that have popped up, and it's all just happening right now. Fluid, and Layla and I have been bringing. Fluid as fluid as the word of the off season so far, and one of them indicated, look, the bears may not be done making trades.

When you hear that, what do you think? Stay nearby, you know, like don't take a breath. Don't go to the bathroom. Don't try to swing out for lunch or anything. You know, just be ready to react because this is that part of March that's really become the NFL's version of March Madness. The new league year and the official opening of free agency isn't until next week. But we've seen this over the last several years,

that the week before the new league year opens is when a lot of these trades start to work. And so, yeah, again, stand by. I think what you, Grady, I think the one thing that you really take note of, and really it kind of corresponds with Ben Johnson's arrival, is it the bears are going to be aggressive, right? Like they're going to know what they want, and they're going to go after what they want. And so we'll see what the next step of that is.

I don't know, you know, what the next move might be. Wouldn't dare to speculate here on these airwaves right now. But I would imagine that their plans are starting to go in domino order here. We're talking to Dan Weider, the senior writer for The Athletic covering the Bears. He is also the co-host of the Take the North podcast ahead of this DJ Moore News when it comes to DJ going to the Buffalo. low bills. That is not finalized or can't be finalized until the league year begins. I know that that is an important note, just the fact that it can't be official until then, but since there seems to be a deal in place, as you understand it, does that mean the

bears are going to move forward, just assuming that that's the case, trying to get other things in place? I don't think that there's going to be anything in a DJ more physical that would raise any red flags as a guy who plays all the time and it takes really good care of himself and gets himself back on the field. And so really it is just a formality in terms of when the calendar flips over for the NFL, and that will be next Wednesday that this will be officially announced. But yeah, I think you move forward with the sense that DJ's gone, and now it's about, you know, what's the area that we want to address next? And as we know, there's two starting jobs open on the offensive line. There's a safety room that's completely vacant right now. There's a

edge-rushing room that probably needs a little bit of help. So the bears are going to have to start to go through their process now of attacking what they need to get. Man, what do you think specifically about the Max Crosby possibilities to the Bears? Are you hearing anything differently? Does that make sense more now than maybe it did yesterday? Nothing new on that front. I mean, I think, again, the Bears are not the only team involved in sort of kicking around on that. And so it really, you know, the Raiders have control of this until they don't.

They've got the control of what the asking price is. The Bears have made it very clear, really through Ryan Poles' entire time as general manager that they set parameters. And when things get outside those parameters, you have to have the discipline to say thanks, but no thanks. And so, like, that's going to be a fluid situation as the Raiders try to get the best possible deal for themselves, or if they don't find one that they like, they've got Max Crosby under contract through 2009.

So they can just stand pat and try to make it work with him. That's been done before with other players in the past. And so, yeah, I would say it's fluid. But you do pick up a draft pick. You do pick up cap space from this DJ Moore trade. And so, like, if that is really something that you feel like is going to be an engine of helping you try to go chase the Super Bowl and you're able to create the resources to go make it happen, then you got to consider it. But again, I think those parameters that they've set that we're not privy to at this point will be key in that entire discussion.

Dan, also, a lot of people bringing this up on our Twitch chat and on our text line, and it is valid. We still don't necessarily know if the Bears are completely cut off from receiving compensatory picks from the NFL for Ian Cunningham's movement. Is there still a chance that that would factor in? Because if so, this draft looks a whole lot better for the Bears than initially thought of. And I know that league year begins next week. Right. And because we haven't heard anything on that, I'm operating under the, the assumption that it's not happening, right?

Like, you know, the teams need to know what their draft board looks like when they're doing business like the Bears are doing right now and with a trade like this. And so you would assume that if they were going to get those picks, that there would have been some sort of formal announcement by now, the board gets set in stone and it's cemented next week when that new league year begins. So I guess there's a small window here where something could change. But I have heard nothing other than a little bit of hope

in the tone of Ryan Poles' voice last week, that something would happen in that regard. So I'm just under the assumption that it's not going to. Weeds, is he just reflecting a little bit on DJ Moore's time here with the Chicago Bears. I was going through the list of all-time bearers-wide receivers. He's at right now, according to Pro Football Reference, he is at number 17 all-time, just ahead of the great Wendell Davis,

and Cole Comet and Dennis McKinnon, who was at number 20 on that list. You and I had many conversations together with DJ Moore. We talk about him off the air. he's an interesting character, kind of unflappable. Your thoughts on DJ more as a bear, maybe on the field and even as a personality in that locker room. Yeah, well, unique personality, and you and I have experienced it up close and personal more than once, and obviously score listeners have as well with DJ joining the morning show for a stretch of time there as well. You know, easy to talk to.

You know, you didn't always know where the conversation was going to go, but he wasn't the guy that you were like, oh, man, this is dreadful to go have, you know, an audience with DJ for a little bit. So it was always fun to kind of pick his brain and then just sort of buckle yourself into that roller coaster. When DJ was part of that trade, less than three years ago with Carolina, you guys all remember where you were when that blockbuster broke, you know, there was a sense that, oh, wow, the bears are getting a proven receiver, you know, the likes of which other than Brandon Marshall that this organization hadn't really seen. And his first couple of years here, he really produced to that level, and you felt really good

about it. I mean, you think back to his first preseason game at Soldier Field and, you know, taking a short pass and turning into a big touchdown. And then obviously the iconic moment of the walk-off touchdown against Green Bay will live forever in Chicago and people will never forget that moment or the feeling of that moment. And so those things will live on in DJ's legacy as a bear. But, you know, it's like all these things in the NFL life comes at you fast. And I don't think that anybody would have thought that this run with DJ would have ended in this way this quickly, and yet here he is moving on to his third team in Buffalo, and hopefully for his sake, pursuing a chance to go try to help that team to a Super Bowl.

There's also this note from Adam Schefter that has come across. As part of today's trade, Buffalo will be guaranteeing $15.5 million of DJ Moore's 2028-based salary per his agent's Drew Rosenhouse and Robert Bailey. Moore's 2026 salary is fully guaranteed, and his 2027 salary becomes fully guaranteed next week. Yeah. Does that affect your thought process on this at all? Or how does that shake out for the bills? No, like that was always going to be sort of a two-year investment that whoever was

trading for DJ was going to make, right? Like, and so it's essentially a two-year, $40 million dice roll to try to make him be a cornerstone of who you are offensively. I'm still sifting through some of the deadcap ramifications for the bears just based on the extension that they gave him during training camp a couple years ago and what that means. Like DJ had a $28.5 million salary cap hit if he remained on the Bears for 2026, but they don't get all 28.5 million of that back because of some of the dead cap ramifications.

And so it's going to be interesting as the day goes on to just kind of sort through those numbers and figure out what the current cap situation looks like with the additional 10 coming from the Dahlman retirement and trying to piece together what this looks like as they go into the new league year next year trying to figure out what games they can play in and what they can't play in based on where their salary cap situation is. Dan Weider, I know you've got to go. Thank you so much for joining the show and adding some much needed understanding and perspective. You guys are the best. Enjoy the day. And then maybe you'll have some more breaking news before your shows up. Whoa. Okay. Okay. That's good to know. Dan. Thank you for that nugget. That's Dan Widerer,

Mark's co-host on Take the North. It's a fluid situation. I mean, it is. I mean, everything is floating about, so why not? Why not more? This is from Jane Slater, the NFL network reporter covering the Cowboys. If you recall, the Cowboys were mentioned as part of the Max Crosby discussion by Brad Biggs yesterday. On Max

Crosby and the Cowboys being at play here, here's what I'm being told from a team source. And when she says team, she means Cowboys. Raiders are talking to a lot of people, but we would not give up two first rounders. That's the situation now. Will it change? I don't know, but I check

for those of you interested. So the Cowboys seem to be under the understanding that it's two first rounders for Max Crosby still. And they ain't doing it. And you know, Danny said he didn't think so. So it's got to be too, well, yeah, that's what, I mean, that's what's out there, right? Two first rounders and a legit player. It's the Micah Parsons deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

So we'll see if that comes into play. But that's another nugget. And part of the reason we bring it up is because there's speculation from guys like Jordan Shultz out there saying he doesn't think the bears are done. And Dan just got off the phone with us making it sound like he may not think the bears are done. Yeah, I mean, we know that there are things to do. I mean, I can't wait until next week when we're talking about free agency and deals starting to be put in place. Can I just say one thing?

Yeah, and I could tell you wanted to say something, yeah. Max. Ray has a one-track mind. Max! Triple X, baby. Max. He comes here. We're adding a third X to his name. Congratulations. We got you two all hooped up on those shamrock shakes yesterday. And now that's the only word you can say. Max.

I got to tell you, like, there's downsides to Max, too. There was a whole article written by Mike Silver in the Athletic, too. The age 29 going on 30 at this point coming off. There was a surgery. There was a surgery. So teams are, and I guess Dallas would be one of them that is looking at that very closely. But if I'm the Raiders, of course. Like, stay strong.

If the two first rounders and a player, the alternative is we get to keep Max Crosby with two axes on our team if you're the Raiders. Stay strong. Yeah, worst case scenario, you still have Max Crosby. Yeah, you still have Max Crosby. But you're paying them over $35 million a year. Uh-huh. So there's that part of it. And that is very valid.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is wishcasting. But when I heard about this trade, the first thing I thought was they were freeing up money to try to get Tyler Linderbaum. They might be. Thought. It's all in place. I'm not confirming anything.

This is by no means a sourced report. This is sourced in my head. And I wondered aloud. They're just going to get everybody. Tyler Linderbom is coming. This is so bears. The sky was falling. I'm talking about Bears fandom and the Bears were.

the sky was falling. The holes were starting to pile up after this great 11-win season where you win your first playoff game in 15 years and the whole band's breaking up. And now not only is the band back together, but you feel rich at the moment and the possibilities are not endless, but they are real right now. This is what happens when the salary cap is this high, you know, and you've got teams like the Raiders, even the Patriots, look at how much under the cap the Patriots are. They've got a ton of money to work with, even though they ended up in the Super Bowl.

They've still got a ton of money that they can work with. That is wild to me. So there's a lot of teams who can make a lot of moves. But there's no doubt Buffalo needed a wide receiver won. And unfortunately it came at the price of DJ Moore leaving, but Josh Allen finally got him. It's a great fit. That was the one thing that I thought, like looking at it objectively, like for the sake of DJ Moore. I said he's got to go to a team that is a winning team. Doesn't have to necessarily

be a Super Bowl team, but at this point in his career, he deserves and needs a quarterback like Josh Allen. I mean, my God, he's been the experimental wide receiver for his entire career with Carolina where he didn't have quarterbacks. He did have good chemistry with Justin Fields, but man, he had to work with a young quarterback there. I remember I remember talking to DJ Moore when we were all talking about the possibility of Caleb Williams being here. And he said, he said, like, being pretty transparent, like, it's all good and it's all great. But then we have to go through this whole learning process again. And that's what he went through in the first year with Caleb Williams and never quite got that 10-level chemistry with the Bears number 18.

And now he is going to work with his former offensive coordinator, Joe Brady, now the head coach in Buffalo. and he's going to work with Josh Allen. The Bears send a fifth round pick this season's draft to Buffalo. They get a 2026th. This year's second rounder in return. We will still continue with your calls. 312, 64, 64, 67, 67. More on DJ Moore.

Going to the Buffalo Bills next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie.