The Buffalo Bills traded for D.J. Moore hoping to solve one of their biggest offseason questions.
One national NFL analyst believes they may have paid too much for the answer.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell ranked Buffalo’s trade for Moore as the team’s worst move of the offseason in a review of all 16 AFC teams.
“Worst: Everything that happened with D.J. Moore,” Barnwell wrote.
The Bills acquired Moore and a fifth-round pick from the Chicago Bears in exchange for a second-round pick earlier this offseason. Moore landed in Buffalo with four 1,000-yard seasons on his resume but also coming off the least productive season of his career.
Barnwell said Bills general manager Brandon Beane’s trade “felt like a franchise acting out of desperation.”
Moore didn’t arrive on a cheap contract. The Bills will pay him about $49 million over the next two seasons — $24.5 million in 2026 and 2027 — and guaranteed additional money in 2028 as part of the deal.
Barnwell’s criticism centered on the cost of the trade and its financial commitment.
“The Bills sent a second-round pick to the Bears for Moore,” Barnwell wrote. “That was already a curious choice by Beane. Even more inexplicably, the Bills ate all of the salary that was already owed to Moore and then guaranteed their new wideout $13.5 million in 2028.”
Moore, 29, caught 50 passes for 682 yards and six touchdowns last season after topping 780 receiving yards in each of his first seven years.
Barnwell questioned whether the Bills surrendered too much draft capital and salary-cap flexibility for a player whose production has declined over the past two seasons.
The criticism comes despite Buffalo’s obvious need at wide receiver.
Since trading Stefon Diggs in 2024, the Bills have tried multiple approaches to finding another reliable target for NFL MVP Josh Allen. Buffalo used a second-round pick on Keon Coleman (2024), traded for Amari Cooper (2024) and signed Joshua Palmer (2025) before ultimately acquiring Moore.
The Bills are betting Moore can provide something they have lacked since Diggs’ departure: a proven receiver capable of winning at all three levels of the field.
Moore has 608 career receptions for 8,213 receiving yards and 41 touchdowns and is only three years removed from posting 96 catches for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns with Chicago.
Allen and Moore entered the NFL together as 2018 first-round draft picks and have begun building chemistry on the field at OTAs.
Barnwell acknowledged there are reasons to believe Moore could rebound in Buffalo, particularly with Allen replacing Caleb Williams at quarterback.
Still, he argued the Bills committed significant resources to the receiver position without landing a sure-fire No. 1 option.
In the same article, Barnwell named Buffalo’s decision to re-sign center Connor McGovern to a four-year, $52 million contract as the team’s best move of the offseason.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: ESPN calls Buffalo Bills’ biggest offseason move their worst
Reporting by Ryan Miller, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
