The Buffalo Bills can’t afford to ignore the wide receiver position in the 2026 offseason. Josh Allen has proven enough without a strong receiving corps the past two seasons, and now it’s on Brandon Beane to make sure that Allen has a reliable No. 1 target next season.
With the offseason still in its early stages, where more focus is on coaching changes, there’s plenty of time to hone in on targets who can beef up the receiver room. Beane will have to make some magic with the salary cap numbers to make sure he can make the right moves, of course, and it will be at that point that Bills Mafia will have a clearer sense of what the options might be for Buffalo.
Still, with all of the changes set to take place around the league, the Bills might not have to temper their expectations of the value the wide receiver market might hold this offseason.
Why Bears' D.J. Moore suddenly makes sense for the receiver-needy Bills
FanSided’s Justin Carter recently listed trade targets for every eliminated team from the postseason field, and in the process offered the Bills a solution to their wideout woes. He suggests the Bills make a call to Chicago to see if they can pry away eight-year veteran D.J. Moore from the Bears.
Despite the leap the Bears’ offense made in 2025 under first-year head coach Ben Johnson, Moore had the worst statistical season of his otherwise impressive career. With three straight seasons of downturn in his production, there may not be a better time to make a move for Chicago’s highest-paid player.
Moore is two years into his 4-year, $110 million extension he got ahead of the 2024 season. That contract came off the heels of his first season in Chicago, in which he posted career-highs in catches (96), yards (1,364) and touchdowns (8).
The Bears have two young wide receivers to build around, Luther Burden III and Rome Odunze. Burden is entering his second season in 2026, Odunze his third, so the Bears might want to make sure they have a veteran presence in the locker room. Still, they might want that type of player to be much cheaper than Moore, who has a $28.5 million cap hit coming in each of the next three seasons, barring a restructure.
All of that gives the Bears and their general manager, Ryan Poles, plenty of reason to at least entertain trading Moore away.
As for Bills Mafia, obviously, they would carry some concern about trading what would likely be a mid-round pick for an expensive receiver coming off his worst season at 28. But, it’s not as though 2025 is anything more than an outlier when looking at the 2018 first-round pick’s entire body of work.
Moore hasn’t missed a game in five seasons, which, compared to Beane’s recent offseason signings, is a huge step up. He’s caught at least six touchdown passes in each of the past four seasons, and has four 1,000-yard seasons and three 90-catch seasons on his resume.
The 2025 season was the first season since his rookie year that Moore didn’t get at least 118 targets in a season. He only had 85. In Buffalo, he’d get 118 targets easily, especially if he continues to stay healthy. To that point, Buffalo had one pass-catcher with more targets, receptions, and yards than Moore last season, that of course being Khalil Shakir.
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While talented and reliable, Shakir isn’t a No. 1 receiver. Moore has proven himself to be such throughout his career, and had one down year while the young bucks in Chicago caught their groove. Moore would certainly have the opportunity to get his career quickly back on track with a change of scenery in Buffalo with Josh Allen tossing him the rock.
Of course, Brandon Beane will have other options to pursue that might not cost quite as much, but taking a long, hard look at Moore and seeing if the pieces fit could help him find the answer to the Bills' receiving troubles.