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Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show

Could the Bears have gotten more for DJ Moore?

20 Mar 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: Could the Bears have traded DJ Moore to the Broncos for more?

1.533 - 16.795 Leila Rahimi

Rahimi Harrison Grody. I'm not a fan of any team. I'm just a fan of being right. Middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score. Bill's Mafia. It's DJ Moore here. I'm checking in. It's lovely. Let's go.

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19.459 - 23.986 Mark Grote

Oh, are you trying to say that DJ Moore is going to break him off in Buffalo?

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Chapter 2: What was the return for DJ Moore in the trade with the Bills?

24.186 - 29.093 Mark Grote

Is that what you're trying to say here, Tyler Buterbaugh? Why do I have a feeling that could happen?

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29.63 - 30.212 Leila Rahimi

It might.

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30.232 - 50.279 Mark Grote

DJ Moore might go out for a lot of yards with Josh Allen up in Buffalo. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. DJ Moore traded. He, along with a fifth round pick, as we know, sent in exchange for a second round pick that came back from the Buffalo Bills, and they get their wide receiver one.

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50.7 - 77.911 Mark Grote

In the meantime, moments later, really it was a few days later, not like Spongebob moments later, we see the Denver Broncos trade for Jalen Waddell. Miami Dolphins receiver goes to another AFC opponent. Here's what the return was, though. The Broncos sent a first, third, and fourth round pick in the swap for Waddle and a Miami Dolphins fourth round pick in this year's draft.

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77.931 - 107.479 Mark Grote

So there was a pick swap, and then there were two other picks. The first rounder will likely be the 25th or 26th selection overall. And, Mark, you had the same reaction a lot of us did. Similar salary structure, although the hits against the cap are different. I want to point that out. But similar structure, similar production, similar upsides. What did you see when you observed that trade?

107.519 - 134.498 Leila Rahimi

First thing I thought was, wait a minute. Should the Bears have? Could the Bears have? Did the Bears try to do business with the Denver Broncos? Because when you look at that, I was like, off the top of my head, I thought, okay, Jalen Waddell, yeah, he's really good, and maybe he's better than DJ Moore. And then I started exploring and comparing and contrasting everything, starting with age.

134.578 - 154.592 Leila Rahimi

Jalen Waddell, 27. DJ Moore, 28. You do go to the statistics. Jalen Waddell has been in the league five years. Three of those five years have been for 1,000-plus yards. DJ Moore has been in the league a little bit longer, eight years. Four of his years have been for 1,000 or more yards.

154.572 - 175.399 Leila Rahimi

yards even look at like the size of these guys like they're both not huge dudes jalen waddle 510 white 85 dj moore's actually bigger listed at six feet 213 and so i was like wait a minute mind blown over what they were able to get they got a first rounder for jalen waddle plus a

175.379 - 190.401 Leila Rahimi

all this year a first rounder a third rounder and a fourth rounder now I'm on record as saying I was very happy with what the Bears got for DJ Moore a second round I was like okay I could deal with that it sucks that DJ's gone for

Chapter 3: How does Jalen Waddell's trade compare to DJ Moore's?

241.201 - 264.306 Mark Grote

Wait a second. Yes. And then guess what else happened? Subsequent contract restructure, you know, and long term investments. There's a lot of Spider-Man meme going on here, Mark. Yeah, there is. Spider-Man v. Spider-Man. Mm. And when it comes to, I think a lot of people think the upside's higher with Waddell because of what he was dealing with in Miami, and maybe that's what netted it.

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264.586 - 282.808 Mark Grote

But I think you're right. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that, oh, these two teams are also in competition with each other in the Bills and the Broncos. And they're very much expecting, I'm sure, to see each other somehow in the playoffs or understanding that that is absolutely a foe that they're going to have to face down the line.

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282.788 - 303.835 Mark Grote

And I do wonder if DJ Moore going to New England or to Buffalo rather set the price differently for them. And I say New England knowing they could have used DJ Moore services too. But I think I wonder if that did set the price differently for Denver because the market became more scarce and they had to do something different.

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303.815 - 323.356 Leila Rahimi

Yeah, that could be. Yeah, the Bears were the first team to the table. But it would be fun to track those two wide receivers. Obviously, we're going to be very anxious to see what DJ Moore does in Buffalo, and the Bears do play Buffalo this year. But those are two wide receivers to circle this year.

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323.997 - 352.89 Leila Rahimi

Do you think – here's a question that came up on – speaking of wide receivers, it came up on TTN, Take the North – Do you think that the Bears have right now enough depth at wide receiver or enough playmakers at the position as it stands right now when you consider that they obviously have Roma Dunzey, you have Luther Burden, add Kalief Raymond to the room, I guess Jada Walker to the room.

352.87 - 375.971 Leila Rahimi

Seems light to me. And I know people love Sade Walker, and he did make some big catches, obviously, down the stretch of the season. But he was a practice squad guy. I'm not ready to just anoint him and say that he is ready to go full blast. And Kalief Raymond's a nice addition, but he's going to give you $200,000. or 300 yards. That's what he does.

376.011 - 384.425 Leila Rahimi

You just go track the career, and maybe there's a bounce being back with Ben Johnson, but it does feel light right now in the wide receiver room.

384.625 - 403.574 Mark Grote

Well, I think it feels light because we know what DJ meant to this team. I think that they're betting a lot on themselves and their choices as a team, the Bears are, when it comes to betting that the improvement of Caleb Williams is going to outpace the roster replacements that we've seen so far.

404.094 - 420.111 Mark Grote

I think they're betting that the improvement of Luther Byrne and Colston Loveland may help swallow some of the yards that DJ Moore had. I'm assuming they think that Roma Dunze is going to catch more than 50% of his targets next year.

Chapter 4: What are the statistics and ages of DJ Moore and Jalen Waddell?

495.059 - 511.752 Leila Rahimi

I hope we get to that point where Caleb can, because of Caleb, a guy could just walk in and get 500 to 600 yards, as elite quarterbacks will do, that anybody could just walk in and have nice numbers because you have that quarterback.

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511.732 - 539.759 Mark Grote

Also, I do think that Jada Walker being a massive part of the Texas A&M offense in the SEC, as we know, a coaching change kind of showed you a better version of the Texas A&M team the next season. I feel like he could be a contributor to the Bears. in a more successful role player position next year. I don't think he's replacing DJ Moore. That's not what I'm saying here.

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540.24 - 546.21 Mark Grote

But if everybody moves up a step, that leaves an opening for Walker here.

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547.135 - 567.625 Leila Rahimi

I'm not ruling out the possibility, but I don't want to depend on him to be that. I don't want to just look at it and say, oh, well, since Johnny Walker came up off the bench and he made some plays and he looked decent, that, okay, he's good to go. And look, he barely made the practice squad.

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Chapter 5: Did the Bears explore trading with the Denver Broncos?

567.665 - 591.158 Leila Rahimi

He barely made the roster. He was a last-day decision. And it was great. And for whatever it's worth... Johnny Walker, very close with Caleb Williams. Their lockers are right next to each other, right near each other. Johnny, very popular in the locker room in general. So he's a good locker room guy, and he's going to be a guy who might get the benefit of the doubt because of Caleb Williams.

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591.178 - 600.632 Leila Rahimi

But yeah, I can't rule out the possibility. As it stands right now, I think I could depend on Luther Burden to keep up what he did last year.

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600.612 - 601.573 Mark Grote

Yeah, easily.

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601.673 - 622.412 Leila Rahimi

I think we can depend on Rome to be better than he was last year. I think. I'm certainly depending on him to be that. I think we're in a pretty safe place. We haven't mentioned Colson Loveland because he's a tight end, but I'm pretty sure he's on the upswing. The rest of it, I can't slam dunk Jadé Walker. I can't do it for Kalief Raymond.

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622.752 - 632.041 Leila Rahimi

So it'll just be interesting to see what they continue to add. Do they draft somebody? I don't know if they would do that. but it'll be interesting to see.

632.361 - 660.454 Mark Grote

Well, and the hard part now is, as I mentioned, you can have a plan where you want to draft somebody who will start, but the expectations the last time that was a plan were much lower. So I don't necessarily know how feasible it is to bring somebody in and expect them to get up to the Ben Johnson level immediately. Or is it the opposite? Is it higher expectations?

660.991 - 685.463 Leila Rahimi

They've all gone up. They have gone up. That's the other thing, too, that you get a little nervous about, just being nervous for the sake of being nervous. It sort of happened in this city. Luther Burden has been anointed. Everybody loves Luther Burden, and there is an assumption. I would say three out of four people, Luther Burden's going to be the leading wide receiver, and he might be.

685.443 - 696 Leila Rahimi

He might be. I get where people are coming from. But it's a lot to plant on a second-year wide receiver who's coming off a 600-yard-something season, right?

696.14 - 701.109 Mark Grote

I think it has more to do with the feeling you had when he caught the ball. Number one, he caught the ball.

Chapter 6: What impact does DJ Moore's departure have on the Bears' roster?

815.064 - 816.146 Leila Rahimi

Oh, my goodness gracious.

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816.166 - 824.26 Mark Grote

So that's improvement. That is not improvement, Jerry. Montez Sweat, Jervon Dexter, and then Austin Booker. So is that a sleeper?

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825.151 - 831.519 Leila Rahimi

I guess relative to the Bears, he's not. But the guy who's never had, what did he have, seven sacks? Six, seven sacks this year?

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831.639 - 833.061 Mark Grote

No, Jervon had six.

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833.081 - 835.324 Leila Rahimi

No, no, no, I'm talking about Booker.

835.424 - 836.586 Mark Grote

You're right, Booker had four and a half.

836.626 - 837.748 Leila Rahimi

Four and a half, okay.

837.768 - 838.909 Mark Grote

For the regular season.

839.35 - 842.293 Leila Rahimi

I think if he gets ten sacks, he will have qualified to be a sleeper.

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