The Buffalo Bills are banking on former Chicago Bears wideout D.J. Moore to help solve the persistent issues at wide receiver in 2026. But, considering the big contract that came with him, they and Bills Mafia know the effort extends well beyond that.
The soon-to-be 29-year-old receiver has already seen some of the numbers in his four-year, $110 million deal move around since coming to Buffalo as the team converted $22.185 million of his salary into a signing bonus, opening up some extra cap space for general manager Brandon Beane to play with.
Further details of his contract have become clearer, as according to Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti, Moore has a $15.5 million injury guarantee that vests to a full guarantee on Valentine’s Day 2028, the first waiver period of the year. Effectively, that makes Moore’s contract in Buffalo a two-year deal with $49 million guaranteed that sets up quite a hurdle in the spring of 2028.
As Ginnitti points out, if the Bills are forced to convert more of Moore’s salary next offseason, then Buffalo could be dealing with a $33 million cap hit for Moore in 2028 with $31 million in dead cap hanging over if the Bills find themselves unsatisfied. “So a release in February of 2028 would be ugly, but doable,” Ginnitti said on Tuesday via X.
Bills’ investment in D.J. Moore leaves little margin for error
Of course, the Bills and their fans don’t want to think about the end of Moore’s days in Buffalo just yet. After all, all of Western New York is holding out hope that Moore will be worth every cent and draft pick Beane spent to bring him to Joe Brady’s offense. But in the meantime, the finances are a point of concern, especially after watching other external options at the position flounder in recent seasons.
Moore himself is coming off his most lackluster campaign since his rookie season in 2018. While he showed some life in his first trip to the postseason, Bears head coach Ben Johnson looked to his younger receivers in Year 1 in Chicago, which left Moore available for Buffalo.
While it’s plenty reasonable to expect Moore to return to form with Josh Allen throwing him the rock while serving as the top target in the offense, Bills Mafia has seen the likes of Curtis Samuel and Josh Palmer underwhelm despite having one of the league’s top passers at their disposal. If Moore disappoints similarly, then the Bills will have to start looking at their exit plans.
Luckily, the contract seems to be what you’d expect from large restructures around the league: big numbers to consider, but realistically, there’s plenty of flexibility. Just as the Bills entered this offseason with little in the room of cap space, Beane was still able to move things around to acquire the likes of Moore.
That said, Moore is still and will be rather expensive, especially in comparison to the failed receiver experiments that came before him. That only ramps up the pressure on him, Beane, and the Bills' offense to finally get the issue out wide resolved this season and next. While the failures of Samuel and Palmer have been largely swept under the rug, Moore’s contract status and how its value matches his production are under a finer microscope in the coming seasons.