Bear Digest

Where Bears Receiver Trio Really Ranks Among League's Best

DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze are getting plenty of attention but do they really rank as the best receiver trio in the NFL?

Gene Chamberlain

DJ Moore burns the Packers for a first down. Now he isn't doing a solo act.
DJ Moore burns the Packers for a first down. Now he isn't doing a solo act. / Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK
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It's been theorized and postulated about since the signing of Keenan Allen and now the drafting of Rome Odunze.

Is it really possible the Chicago Bears have the best wide receiver group in the NFL? The same Chicago Muhsin Muhammad once said was the place where "...wide receivers go to die."

After the 2022 season ended and the Bears stole DJ Moore away from Carolina in a draft day trade, Pro Football Focus ranked the team's receiver corps. 13th out of 32 teams.

It seemed a bit generous considering they'd been dead last at 32nd just a season earlier. In fact, the 2022 receiver corps was so bad it's surprising they weren't rated 33rd in a 32-team league.

Moore changed all of that and the addition of a veteran of Allen's magnitude and the third- or second-best receiver in the draft depending upon your viewpoint, easily puts the Bears in the top five.

There are deeper receiver corps, teams with five receivers who might be better. Green Bay's receiver corps is young and deep, but none have done what Moore and Allen have, and the overall star power of the third-best or second-best receiver in the draft class is lacking. There are other deep groups.


CBS Sports' Garrett Podell decided to tackle the issue and determined the Bears' trio of Allen, Moore and Oduze ranks second overall among receiver trios.

BearDigest maintains the Bears might be No. 1 if Podell's rankings count for anything. That's because the Bears' threesome is better than the threeseome he calls No. 1, the Houston Texans.

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First, it's tough to take seriously a ranking where DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba of Seattle are ranked eighth, like in Podell's rankings.

Many of the teams considered have two great receivers. Cincinnati h as the Ja'Marr Chase-Tee Higgins duo and they're fourth. The 49ers are fifth with Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel. Both those teams have big drop-offs to the third receiver.

Tampa Bay, with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, remains tough to top and is seventh but the drop off here is to Trey Palmer

If you were taking into account receiving backs or tight ends, the 49ers would be tough to beat. But this is about wide receivers.

The Eagles probably rank higher based on three receivers than the 49ers or Bengals because A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and DeVante Parker all are or have been regarded highly in the league.

The Texans are vastly overrated in this. There is no doubt Diggs rates high but Collins has had one good year and two poor years. Dell started only eight games last year. Potentially, they look very good but there is no way that threesome is better than the combination of Moore, Allen and Odunze.

And Moore, Allen and Odunze shouldn't be No. 1, either.

Somehow Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and Odell Beckham have to rate the best. The speed of Hill and Waddle and the experience of Beckham looks a bit better than an aging receiver like Allen, a brilliant receiver in his prime like Moore and a receiver with untested potential like Odunze.

The potential for the Bears receiver trio is wildly high but so much depends on Caleb Williams being effective as a rookie in an offense now about to be installed.

So in the end, it's a good ranking for the Bears from Podell but not if he's going to call Houston No. 1.

The Texans had a good year in 2023, but two receivers who have never done it more than one season, including one who has hasn't started much, like Dell, can't be taken seriously as best receiver corps when teams like the Bears, Dolphins, Eagles, Buccaneers, Bengals and others have groups more proven.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.