Bear Digest

DJ Moore's Bears Future Secured After $110 Million Extension

Bears wide receiver urges Keenan Allen to get an extension done in Chicago after completing his own deal good through 2029.

Gene Chamberlain

DJ Moore on His Contract Extension.mp4
DJ Moore on His Contract Extension.mp4 /
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The celebration dinner for DJ Moore's young family reflected the no-nonsense style work ethic the wide receiver has shown since signing with the Bears in 2023.

No champagne and caviar after his deal of four years, $110 million with $82 million guaranteed. It truly was a case of winner, winner, chicken dinner.

"Our celebration dinner was Popeyes. It was good too," Moore said. "We had an eight-piece family dinner. It was classic. My son had to eat, so he tore up some chicken, and my daughter was eating the chicken and mashed potatoes. And they tore it up. But we couldn't do spicy because we've got them two."

The contract extension ties Moore up to the Bears through 2029, showing what they think of the receiver who produced career highs of 96 catches, 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns last season.

"Six years. Feels great. Security. The guaranteed money was awesome. That was the main part that I loved out of the whole thing."

Moore closely followed what happened around the league this past offseason as one $30 million-a-year contract came in after another for wide receivers, and agent Drew Rosenhaus went about negotiating a deal.

"They all breaking new heights, going to 35 (million)," he said. "I don't know, I wasn't really in that mindset to go to the top-top.

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"I was just like, all right, what's a good number? And let's go from there."

Rosenhaus was at Halas Hall several days after receiving the Bears' offer and finalized the deal Tuesday. According to ESPN, the deal makes Moore the first player ever to have his first 10 years fully guaranteed.

"The organization embraced me from the time that I got here," Moore said. "From the time that we got traded to the time that ink got on that paper, it has been nothing but love and I hope that it's always going to be that way and I'm going to keep going out there and putting my best foot forward."

Now he wants to go about getting the wins he hasn't had, and this team hasn't had.

"Shoot, I accomplished the contract part, now we gotta go out there and win," Moore said. "Starting with the division and go from there.

"That's always the main goal of the season and thus forth, so I'm looking forward to it."

The best team he has played for so far, at least percentage-wise, is the 7-9 Panthers team he broke in with in 2018.

His offensive coordinator then was Norv Turner, brother of former Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner and coordinator for the great 1990s Dallas Cowboys teams of Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.

Moore credits Turner with starting his career out right.

"He had me learn every position on the field and go to practice running 100 mph every day until I got to be able to be a starter," Moore said. "So I give kudos to him."

If the winning is to come, it will result from quarterback stability and possibly from other possible receivers being available to Caleb Williams like Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze.

Moore largely performed a solo act last year when he put up big numbers, but now all the receivers have said they're racing for 1,000 yards.

"I mean, also, I didn't have nobody else, but now we've got Rome and Keenan," Moore said. "But like I said, I had one year when we had (QB) Teddy (Bridgewater), Robby (Anderson) and Curtis (Samuel), and we all had 1,000.

"I had 1,000. Robby had 1,000, Curtis had 1,000 all-purpose. So I mean, it's doable. I'm not really worried about that. So we're going to see. It's been a lot of fun."

The only players in question now on offense for the future are guard Teven Jenkins and Allen, whose contracts expire after this season.

"Everybody is here for the long haul on the offensive side," Moore said. "That's pretty good for me."

Moore already was trying to get the 32-year-old Allen to sign an extension.

"I did that yesterday," he said. ":I was like, man, listen. What's your number? Let's get it done.

"And I mean, I'm going to leave his number out of it. But I think we can get it done. So it should be interesting."

Another Popeyes dinner celebration?

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.