It’s incredible to think that Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen won the NFL MVP two seasons ago and finished third in 2025 with Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman (when he wasn’t disciplinarily benched) as his top two wide receivers.
Or the fact that Allen hasn’t had a true in-his-prime No. 1 wideout since Stefon Diggs’ first few seasons in Buffalo (2020-22).
Rather, perhaps it’s more interesting to think what Allen might now do, at the peak of his powers and equipped with arguably the best collection of targets he’s had yet after the Bills acquired wide receiver DJ Moore from the Chicago Bears on Thursday for a 2026 second-round pick (with a fifth-round pick coming back).
Moore has four seasons of between 1,157 and 1,364 receiving yards in his eight-year career with the Carolina Panthers and Bears.
Is he a true star No. 1 receiver? Ehh, that might be a stretch. He’s never earned Pro Bowl or All-Pro recognition, and he got marginalized last season in Chicago as rookie tight end Colston Loveland and young wideouts Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III emerged.
But he’s unquestionably the best receiver the Bills have had in years — since Diggs’ peak — and a long-overdue and deserved upgrade for their elite MVP quarterback, and that’s the whole point here.
The Top Bills Receivers During Josh Allen’s Career
For the fun of it, let’s look at Allen’s top 3 WRs for each of his eight seasons:
2018: Zay Jones, Robert Foster in the only notable season of his NFL career and out-of-shape Kelvin Benjamin in his final season … Sheesh, did the Bills even want Allen to succeed as a rookie?!
2019: John Brown, Cole Beasley and Isaiah McKenzie … Ho-hum
2020: Stefon Diggs, Cole Beasley and Gabe Davis … Better
2021: Diggs, Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders (with Davis) … Solid
2022: Diggs, Davis and McKenzie … Getting colder
2023: Diggs on a modest decline, Davis and Khalil Shakir emerging in his second season … Fine
2024: Shakir, rookie Keon Coleman and Mack Hollins … Really?!
2025: Shakir, Coleman and 12 games of Joshua Palmer … C’mon, man!
Shakir is a solid NFL wide receiver and a nice weapon to have out of the slot — but ideally as a complementary second or third receiver.
Allen’s No. 2 and 3 targets last season were actually tight ends Dalton Kincaid (39 catches for 571 yards and 5 TDs) and Dawson Knox (36-417-4), who have developed into one of the better tandems in the league over the last three seasons together.
A good slot receiver and two solid tight ends are nice pieces to the puzzle for a good passing attack, but not if they’re the only pieces. Now add in Moore and the full picture starts to take shape.
It’s no coincidence that Allen’s two best passing seasons came those first two years with Diggs and the two best collections of wideouts he’s had with the Bills. In 2020, Allen completed 69.2% of his passes for a career-high 4,544 yards and 37 touchdowns (with 10 interceptions) as the Bills reached the first of two AFC championship games with the star QB. In 2021, he threw for the second-best totals of his career with 4,407 yards and 36 TDs (with 15 INTs).
How DJ Moore Fits In With Buffalo
The last two seasons, Allen’s passing totals were down to 3,731-28-6 and 3,668-25-10 despite playing all 17 games. Of course, his bullying dual-threat rushing ability is also a huge part of his production and the Bills’ identity, along with NFL rushing leader James Cook.
That won’t change, but the addition of Moore should give the Bills some better offensive balance and the potential to be one of the most well-rounded units in the league.
Moore’s best seasons came in Carolina, which drafted him No. 24 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Maryland. He put up three straight 1,100-yard seasons from his second through fourth years in the league with 87 catches for 1,175 yards and 4 TDs, 66-1,193-4 and 93-1,157-4 before dipping to 63-887-7 in his last season with the Panthers.
Two of those big seasons came with his new head coach in Buffalo, Joe Brady, as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator.
He was then traded to Chicago in a huge deal for the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, which Carolina used to take QB Bryce Young, while the Bears received Moore and several picks, including what became the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft netting QB Caleb Williams.
Moore set career-highs during his first season with the Bears with 96 catches for 1,364 yards and 8 TDs in 2023, and he was rewarded with a four-year, $110-million contract as general manager Ryan Poles called him “a cornerstone of our franchise.”
Well, everything in the NFL is ever tenuous.
Moore put up the worst season of his career in 2025 as the Bears’ young pass-catchers usurped him. He still finished second on the team behind Loveland with 50 catches for 682 yards and 6 TDs in 17 games, but he would have been fourth if Odunze (44-661-6) played more than 12 games or Burden (47-652-2) played more than 15 games. Over the final nine games, Moore had 1 or no catches in five of them and 18 or fewer yards in six.
He did have the 46-yard walk-off game-winning touchdown catch to beat the Packers in overtime during that stretch.
And he was better in the postseason with 11 catches for 116 yards and 2 TDs in two playoff games, including the 25-yard game-winning score to beat the Packers again in the wildcard round.
Unfortunately, Moore’s three-year Bears tenure ended on this play in the divisional round loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
We’ll disagree with the Twitter poster’s hypothetical, though. This was a smart move for the Bears, who didn’t need to be paying their third- or fourth target an average annual value of $27.5 million.
Freeing up that money and getting a second-round pick in the process is absolutely a win for Chicago, while at the same time being a totally sensible price to pay for a team like Buffalo that was desperate to upgrade the position and capitalize on Allen’s prime years.
Ideally, it would have been even better if the Bills could have pried A.J. Brown from Philadelphia or landed another true star No. 1 receiver, but maybe Moore still has that in him. He turns 29 years old next month and is now playing with arguably the best quarterback in football, in an offense where he should be the clear the No. 1 target and for an offensive-minded head coach who he had great success for previously.
For that matter, Moore looks to be the real winner in this trade.
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