Bear Digest

Bears find little fault with Caleb Williams-to-DJ Moore connection

Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle says the offense will "stay the course" with hopes Caleb Williams finds DJ Moore more than last game.
Gene Chamberlain|
Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell brings down Bears wide receiver DJ Moore in the Bears' 24-15 win on Black Friday.
Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell brings down Bears wide receiver DJ Moore in the Bears' 24-15 win on Black Friday. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears haven't forgotten about DJ Moore even though it sometimes seems like it.

Wide receiver Rome Odunze was back at practice Thursday on a limited basis after a foot injury, and his absence had seemed like an ideal time for the passing game to lean more on their highly paid veteran receiver.

Instead, only three targets and a catch for minus-4 yards last week for Moore even surprised coach Ben Johnson.

Nothing has changed with how the Bears feel about Moore.

"He's a very explosive player with the ball in his hands," offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. "Obviously, now getting to work with him, I really enjoy the person. I enjoy, you know, who he is in the building and same guy every day, but he's a guy that is a weapon when you use him, and you know, he's done a good job. Every time we've asked him to go do something, he's doing it."

He has 39 catches and has never had less than 55 for a season. That season with his low total was as a rookie in 2018.

Moore is moving around extensively within the offense. It's almost as if he hasn't had a chance to land long enough so he could be found.

"There's a lot of weapons in our offense," Doyle said. "We try to move them all around. There's a lot of guys that we're trying to target, and so he gets moved around a little bit. He's a smart player, so we feel really comfortable moving him to different spots and so that can be a negative or a strength depending on where we're trying to go with the ball.

"But I just would say about DJ, he's done a great job of doing exactly what we've asked of him and he continues to do so."

So what's the answer for finding Moore?

"I think Caleb's doing a great job of doing what we're asking him to do within the concept," Doyle said. "You know, we're trying to build these plays to feed everybody. And it just so happens, like Ben has talked about it before, there's plays in every game for all of our guys, and sometimes those things, you know, might be a throw that he's the primary and the coverage doesn't dictate that the ball goes there.

"And so both those guys are doing a good job of staying the course, and they're going to continue to do so."

Staying the course is nice but doing it and producing pass completions needs to be the goal.


"Obviously, you're looking at it and you would say, like, oh,  'there's a little less production than, you know, maybe we would have anticipated,' but I don't think that's any part of what he's doing," Doyle said. "I think he's doing a great job of just staying the course, and, you know, like a lot of our guys that have had, you know, breakthrough games or things like that, you just stay on it, and eventually you just keep pounding and pounding away, and it shows up.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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.