00:00The defense respects that dude.
00:02They play off of that guy.
00:03They don't want to tackle him.
00:04They don't want to cover him.
00:06Did you see the smile on Josh Allen's face
00:08when he gets asked questions about DJ Moore?
00:11He's like, yeah, this is the guy.
00:12I want to get it to him early and often.
00:13Like he's a weapon.
00:14He's a problem for people.
00:15They're going to be a really, really fun offense.
00:18I think DJ Moore is going to be great for Josh Allen.
00:20It's such a good thing for the Bills.
00:21In a weird way, this could be a win-win situation
00:24for the Bears and the Bills,
00:25but if I had to give the win to somebody,
00:27I like this for the Bills a lot.
00:31Matt Hasselbeck.
00:37Okay.
00:38Certainly a couple highlights on Saturday from DJ Moore.
00:42Two years ago with Chicago.
00:45I could make it three,
00:47because three years ago is his career high.
00:50In yards.
00:521,364 yards.
00:54So 80 yards a game.
00:55Played them all.
00:56The guy hasn't missed a game in more than five years.
00:59DJ Moore.
01:00And it looked a little iffy there for a minute on Saturday,
01:02but, you know, talking to Sal,
01:04maybe there's nothing to worry about.
01:05We'll find out perhaps more tomorrow.
01:0896, 1,364.
01:12And eight.
01:13That's Justin Fields' Bears in 2023.
01:16Then the next year, 98 catches.
01:18Two more.
01:20Just under 1,000 yards.
01:21966.
01:22And then six touchdowns.
01:24His lowest ever yards per reception season.
01:27He's much more of a downfield target option for his Carolina teams.
01:31Brady was there for part of that.
01:33And then that one Bears year.
01:34And then last year, just a nosedive.
01:38Same games played.
01:40But 55 fewer targets.
01:4348 fewer catches.
01:46And hundreds fewer yards.
01:49682.
01:50The same six touchdowns for the season.
01:52I mean, I know.
01:53And he had a rushing touchdown, by the way, last year.
01:55Don't want to leave that out.
01:57I know how the Bills see it.
01:59The Bills see it, just like Matt Hasselbeck sounds like he sees it.
02:04You know, wheels up.
02:06And maybe he'll be right.
02:08Maybe they'll be right.
02:09The other side of the argument is that this huge drop-off last year for DJ Moore
02:18was because of DJ Moore.
02:20That it wasn't just circumstances.
02:22You know, it often isn't.
02:23It's a player.
02:25I think of this more for tight ends.
02:26But a player is largely responsible for his own targets.
02:31A quarterback, I mean, a competent quarterback, is not going to hide from you
02:35if you get open all the time.
02:37They're going to find you.
02:38And that did not happen with Caleb Williams and DJ Moore last year,
02:42at least on the same level that it had happened before in Moore's career,
02:46even with Williams the year before.
02:48So he's either really good still, as he's been for most of his career,
02:55if not all of it, and young enough to put up a great season on a team
03:03with the best quarterback he's ever had.
03:05Maybe by far.
03:07Williams was good.
03:08But, you know, Williams was the best quarterback I think he'd ever had
03:11before, you know, he showed up.
03:13So it's either that or the critics were right in being concerned about what Moore
03:22has left after eight seasons in the league, in which time he almost, again,
03:27has never missed a game.
03:28Like, he has played not a lot of playoff games, but, you know,
03:31eight hard full years so far.
03:35And, you know, maybe it's down the middle.
03:37If it's down the middle, I think you get a year like Moore had two years ago.
03:42I don't see any, maybe, but I guess I shouldn't rule it out,
03:45but I don't see any 1,300-plus-yard season happening here.
03:49Something that gets them, what would that be, top five or six in the NFL?
03:54I wouldn't expect that.
03:55I don't think the circumstances, the situation is exactly right for that.
04:00Where, like, that Bears team, as impressive as this is for that team,
04:05with fields at quarterback, just not really going anywhere.
04:09And they were not flush with options at receiver.
04:13They changed that in the last two years since with Burden and with Loveland
04:17and Odunze, of course, with the Bears.
04:19Like, they've really overhauled it.
04:21And the quarterback is different.
04:23So you get a stat line between that career year in yards and touchdowns,
04:32and then last year you split the difference.
04:35Then you're looking at 75 catches for, wow, what a difference.
04:40I mean, it's like double the yards from last year to 2023.
04:441,000, say, not to put too fine a point on it.
04:4875 for 1,000, and I guess it would be seven touchdowns.
04:53Like, you know, I think you take it.
04:56That's four to five receptions a week.
04:59I think that kind of number, that doesn't sound as exciting as, you know,
05:04doubling that would.
05:05But that kind of number, I think, fits with what the Bills have been on offense.
05:11They just, their, I think their hope is that, not that they want to reinvent anything,
05:18but that they have a separator and, you know, speed and the package,
05:23the skill set that you have with this player, and they can benefit accordingly.
05:29Not feeding him all the time, not reinventing, but getting more out of his targets,
05:37his usage than they've gotten out of whoever you want to use for this.
05:41Mack Hollins, I mean, whoever you want to use for this in the last couple of years.
05:44So, I think that's a win.
05:47To evaluate the trade, as Matt Hasselbeck started to do, to compare,
05:52you can't leave out what the Bears got.
05:55Like, it's just not a player.
05:58It's a second-round draft pick.
05:59Like, they didn't, it's, you have to remember that.
06:02I mean, that's part of, they didn't just give the Bills, DJ Moore.
06:05I do think enough people have said it, not that we really know this.
06:10I don't know anybody that knows this.
06:11But, like I said, at the time of the trade, it did seem like there was a fair chance
06:15the Bears were going to release him.
06:17That's why Hasselbeck says, you know, that they both kind of win the trade.
06:21Which is really saying what, from Chicago's standpoint.
06:24I mean, he didn't reference the draft pick.
06:26He would know that there is that.
06:29It's that, you know, maybe too many cooks or chefs or whatever you want there
06:33for the, for the too many Bears, just needing or wanting to kind of move forward
06:41with the other guys and invest somewhere else on the roster and get younger,
06:47which they were able to do all of that with that trade.
06:52Man, fantasy sickos out here are just gaga for burden.
06:56And I'm, I'm in, I'm, you know, I'm in the echo chamber.
07:01He's a fourth round pick.
07:02Sometimes not even that, sometimes even the third.
07:06But mid to late fourth, I can't help myself.
07:09Feel like this, this guy takes some of what DJ Moore was giving the Bears.
07:15Second year really came on late last year.
07:18I put him on a higher level than Odunze.
07:21Just, you know, not like I'm crushing film or anything like that,
07:25but I hear a lot more excitement about burden than I do about Odunze,
07:28who goes a couple rounds later.
07:30And then there's Colston Loveland, the tight end,
07:32who I think is in another great spot.
07:33And I'm thrilled to draft him too when I can.
07:37I still, I think the bill's still, what holds me back on more in that context
07:42is his age and also just that they have built this thing.
07:47They're not, I'm not hearing everybody eats anymore and I'm relieved,
07:50but they have built this around that kind of concept.
07:54And they've been successful, so why would they scrap it?
07:58One theory would be that Joe Brady never really, like, you know,
08:03that McDermott kind of dictated that.
08:06I just don't really think so.
08:08When Brady took over from Ken Dorsey in the middle of that season three years ago,
08:14now, they went right to the running game.
08:17And they basically ignored Diggs.
08:21Like, just like that.
08:22They basically re, that was a reinvention.
08:26We're going to run the ball and win that way.
08:29And they did.
08:29They won a lot.
08:30They just lost in the playoffs again, because that's what always happens.
08:33But they were not unsuccessful.
08:35And that is what led me to think the next year, so this is now 2024, I guess,
08:40why would they not do the same thing?
08:43And they did the same thing.
08:44And then you had Cook and his 16 rushing touchdowns.
08:46And then there was this question last year again.
08:48But, you know, receiving talent and whatever about their offense that raised questions.
08:54Yep, they're going to want to play the same way.
08:56And they play the same way.
08:57And then Cook leads the league in rushing.
08:59So, I think that's the recipe that they have really thrived with.
09:07And I just would be surprised if they wanted to mess with that.
09:11And I think this lines up.
09:14This is to the Bills' credit.
09:16I mean, their timing of this all.
09:18Because it lines up with the trends in the league going the same way.
09:23How defenses play the top quarterbacks.
09:27The size of their defensive players.
09:29I mean, there have been certain trends that show you how teams are more willing to run the ball now
09:35because lighter boxes, as they say, and this kind of thing.
09:39And I could see, actually, Kansas City shifting to that this year.
09:45I don't think you sign Kenneth Walker without some intention of doing that.
09:51Mahomes off the injury.
09:52And they still don't have that great of a wide receiver room anyway.
09:57Like, they didn't really fix that.
09:58What did they do?
09:59They've got a rookie they like.
10:01They always do.
10:01Cyrus Allen is his name.
10:03But it's Rice and it's Worthy.
10:05And, of course, it's Kelsey.
10:08Yeah, I think Walker was their move.
10:10And I think, you know, I'm not sure.
10:11I want to say they're going to copy the Bills.
10:13But I think, and, you know, Kansas City with Mahomes, as good as he is,
10:16always has these kind of relative no-names that pop up.
10:20And the Bills have had some of that, too.
10:22So I think you're seeing what Buffalo did successfully,
10:26that they'll try to, you know, have continue the way they play.
10:30And other teams, maybe Kansas City would be the latest
10:33and the biggest name for this coming around to that.
10:35I think Walker is a great fantasy pick
10:38because I'm expecting Kansas City to shift in this way.
10:42I'm Mike Shope.
10:43Thanks for listening.
10:44Bulldog is off this week.
10:45More after this here on WG.
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