DJ Moore explains why he walked off field in viral video |
CHICAGO - Last season was a career year for veteran receiver DJ Moore who finished with 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns, both career highs. This year with rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was supposed to be another stellar campaign for Moore, but it has been anything but.
Currently, rookie Rome Odunze is Chicago’s leading receiver after having his second 100-yard game of the season in the Bears’ 20-point loss against the Arizona Cardinals. Given that Moore has 16 more targets than Odunze, with 60 total, this is quite surprising. However, Moore is still second on the team in receiving yards with 374 yards. This is the complete opposite of last year for Moore. When he played with quarterback Justin Fields, they had an almost instant connection. It only took two games with Fields for Moore to have a 100-yard game. That took five games with Williams at the helm and has not happened since. Five weeks into Moore’s time with Fields, he had 531 receiving yards and five touchdowns. Another aspect that is surprising is Moore's touchdown production. Through the first eight games of the year, Moore has only scored three touchdowns; two of those came in his revenge game against the Carolina Panthers. The presence of six-time Pro-Bowler Keenan Allen was expected to take targets and yards away from Moore, but that does not seem to be the case. Allen is the definition of consistency. In his first 11 years in the league, he never finished a season with a completion percentage under 60 percent and has six 1,000-yard seasons. Every season, Allen has averaged at least 55.9 yards per game; that average came in his second year in the league. If his current average of 32.8 yards per game holds, it will be the lowest of his career by far. While it is undeniable that Allen is an elite talent, Williams seems to be trying to force the ball his way when there are potentially better options. Allen has been targeted 17 times, but only has six receptions for 75 yards to show for it in the past two games. Some of these are drops, as Moore mentioned happened on one play against Arizona, but Moore also indicates he was open in the end zone which would have been the better read. “You can never go wrong going to (Keenan Allen). He just didn’t catch the ball,” Moore said. “If Caleb wanted (to) throw to Keenan, I was right there for the touchdown. So, it’s all based on where Caleb puts the ball.” When you have as much turmoil surrounding a team as the Chicago Bears do right now, it turns heads when your top receiver appears to walk off the field in the middle of a play. Particularly given how the game ended against the Washington Commanders with the actions of cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, the video of Moore was quite concerning. However, Moore maintains that this is not what happened because he had actually tweaked his ankle. “Tweaked ankle. I was coming back because I (saw) Caleb scrambling and ankle went in and out. I (couldn’t stop), so my momentum took me out of bounds and then I just walked off, which the noise, I hear it, (I’ve) seen it. Really didn’t care. It is what it is,” Moore said. “I was doing a bunch of stuff on the sideline to keep me going throughout the game. So, that’s what kept me going.” I know DJ Moore said he rolled his ankle, but I've never seen this before ... a player walking off mid-play and sitting on the bench. lol pic.twitter.com/TdWVifX3jC Returning home against the New England Patriots this coming Sunday (Noon / FOX) gives the Bears a chance to get back on track. They are undefeated at home so far this season. However, you cannot win football games without scoring touchdowns. “We just got to get back to scoring,” Moore said. “We just had a game where (kicker) Cairo (Santos) had all the points and that leaves a sour taste in our mouth, but we want to go out there and score touchdowns for the team, the fans, the organization which we need to do at any cost whether it’s throwing the ball, running the ball, defensive touchdown. Somebody got to score some touchdowns.”
