'I’m still a top receiver in this league:' Is DJ Moore the missing piece in Buffalo?

So far, so good. The 29-year-old wide receiver has been lighting up the Buffalo Bills' practice field. Go Long chats 1 on 1 with DJ Moore... he's eager to reassert himself amongst the NFL's best.

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PITTSFORD, NY — Nothing infuriates prideful, testosterone-fueled NFL wide receivers more than seeing your name fade from the public discourse. Cardiac game-winners weren’t enough last season. A dip in statistical production has unequivocally changed how everyone around the NFL views DJ Moore.

NFL execs, coaches and scouts, per ESPN, do not view him as one of the best 26 wide receivers in the league. And when I suggested to one rival defensive coordinator in the AFC that Moore could be a wideout capable of winning 1 on 1, all I heard on the other line was, “Ehh, I don’t know.” The Chicago Bears’ GM declared his team plans on building a “dynasty” and being “championship caliber” for a very long time. Apparently ditching Moore for a draft pick was part of that plan. And even in Western New York, a ravenous half of the fan base loudly protested the decision to swap the 60th pick for the 165th pick for a 29-year-old wideout and inherit his salary.

So maybe it’s fitting that our first conversation with the Buffalo Bills’ new No. 1 wide receiver takes place mid-monsoon at St. John Fisher University. We’re underneath an awning attached to the team’s locker room.

Moore doesn’t world-salad his way around this topic.

All of this absolutely serves as motivation. The only answer is to perform.

“If people don’t know,” Moore says, “when we’re playing, they will know.”

The next morning, Moore cradles a Josh Allen bomb between three defenders for one of the best connections you’ll find in any NFL training camp. It’s been that kind of summer for the team’s new wide receiver — he’s dominating. This isn’t August hyperbole. Moore is far and away the most potent weapon this offense has had at wide receiver since Stefon Diggs circa 2022 and nothing matters more on offense than this development. An “Everyone Eats” mantra fosters genuine selflessness.

Another playoff loss, however, supplied another lesson: Buffalo needed a true No. 1. A separator. A playmaker who’ll deliver in January nut-cutting time. When it’s third and 8 and the season’s on the line, you know he’ll win his route. His numbers last season in Chicago — 682 yards, six touchdowns — never reflected the whole story. Moore is a unconventional WR1 with the potential to go off with an unconventional QB1.

He’s a man of few words, but the words he chooses are knifing.

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“I still stack myself up there with the top guys,” Moore says. “That’s my mentality — I’m still a top receiver in this league. I’m not going to put a number on it, but I’m up there.”

All teams interested in winning a championship should covet attitude at the position. It might’ve gotten ugly with Diggs at the end, but it was always important for the Bills to take another swing. Venture down the Wide Receiver Matrix and you’ll find meek boy scouts all the way to ticking time bombs.

The team’s new wide receivers coach — the vibrant 35-year-old Drew Terrell — entered the NFL the same year with the same team as Moore.

He believes Moore will elevate back into that upper tier. He points to this burning desire.

“You need guys that are assholes and ultra-confident and almost like delusional,” Terrell says. “Guys that think that they’re open all the time and they want the ball all the time regardless of the coverage. They think they’re open. Those are the type of players you should have playing receiver.”

Music to the ears of title-starved Bills fans.

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On the same day Moore caught that moon ball from Allen, the Baltimore Ravens inked Zay Flowers to a contract worth $35 million annually. Buffalo is paying Moore $24.5 million per year — his bonuses were already paid out by Chicago. Suddenly, his contract looks quite team-friendly. And let’s face it. The dollar amount for any player on any contender doesn’t mean a thing if that player produces.

Buffalo’s offense was potent enough to produce the league’s MVP in 2024 and the NFL’s rushing champ in 2025. GM Brandon Beane, who famously defended his receiver room on WGR 550, then again at Go Long, realized his quarterback cannot throw the ball to the likes of Mack Hollins and Brandin Cooks in the playoffs. Nor could the Bills put all eggs in the Keon Coleman basket. A-level talent was required.

This is Year 9. Moore believes he’s a “new me” each season.

Life as an undisputed No. 1 target again has been sweet.

“I’m getting back to my old self,” Moore says. “That’s the feeling this year and that’s what I’m sticking to. Explosive. A playmaker across the field. Whether it’s deep, intermediate or shallow routes in the short game. Just taking it on and being explosive.”

At camp, those shorter routes have been as impressive as the highlight-reel bombs. On Tuesday, his most impressive play might’ve been this 1-2-3-4 number on cornerback Christian Benford that rekindled memories of Peak Diggs. This didn’t resemble a player on the decline.

We don’t need to travel too far back in time to see what Moore can mean for an offense. In ‘23, he caught 96 balls for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns with Justin Fields and Tyson Bagent as his quarterbacks on a 7-10 Bears team.

If he’s going to get back to this level, he’ll do it with a play style unlike any other No. 1.

One of Moore’s former WR coaches explained to us last spring what makes Moore non-traditional. This coach also praised Moore as a running back with the ball in his hands, the best YAC player this side of Ja’Marr Chase. Terrell agrees. And to him, Moore is an athletic freak who defies sports science. These aren’t routes you’ll find on instructional videos.

“He’s not like your prototypical outside polished route runner,” Terrell says. “He’s just a really explosive athlete and his body moves in different ways, but he creates separation. He could plant off the wrong foot and stay on his feet and be running away from him.”

Take the dig route, an in-breaker at 10 to 15 yards. Ninety-nine percent of receivers break off their outside foot to execute this 90-degree turn.

Moore, conversely, can break off his inside foot.

Cornerbacks are burnt before they know what’s going on.

“It’s like, ‘How the hell did you just do that? People can’t do that,’” Terrell says. “DJ’s got incredible balance. Super explosive. Really, really good ball skills. And he’s really hard to tackle. People don’t understand how strong he is in his lower body. It’s hard to get him on the ground. So he’s an exciting athlete, but he’s different in the way he moves.

“If you went and watched him run routes, you’d be like, ‘OK. This guy needs some polish.’ But he’s able to do things that nobody else can do.”

Impressive, but couldn’t funky route running mess with the timing for a quarterback trying to calibrate with his new receiver? Time will tell. Terrell is confident the two will only gain trust in each other as these reps accumulate. Allen is making a concerted effort to feed Moore the ball in practice.

Terrell thinks we tend to overthink this sport, too.

When it comes to that bohemian quarterback, the coach also sees something different.

Most players, he explains, lose their “creativity” in football with age. Not Allen.

“I’m excited for DJ to play with a guy like Josh,” says Terrell. “He brings such energy to the offense. He brings such belief. When you’re young, it’s like: ‘I’ve got to take this ball. I’ve got to score it. These guys got to try to tackle me.’ It’s so simple. And then the older we get, the more complicated we make it. But Josh Allen plays football like he’s in Pop Warner: I’ve got to score the ball with my friends. That’s it.”

In Carolina and Chicago, Moore has been hampered by mostly piss-poor quarterback play. There’s no hesitation in his voice. Yes, Allen is the best quarterback who’s ever thrown passes to him.

Last fall, Caleb Williams supplied a string of fourth-quarter thrills. But the second-year QB never developed a rapport with Moore in completing 58.1 percent of his passes — 32nd amongst 33 qualifying quarterbacks. The ball should be placed in his hands more often with a quarterback who hit on 69.3 percent, fourth-best in the NFL.

Thus far, Moore is feeling good about his chemistry with Allen on and off schedule.

When No. 17 scrambles, he wants to know exactly what his QB is thinking.

“It’s growing because at the end of the day, we’re just going to go out there and play ball,” Moore says. “He’s going to throw to a spot and I’ve got to get to that spot before the DB. And it’s been working out so far. I’m proud of it. Hopefully we keep growing.”

“Having an MVP quarterback like that unlocks you wanting to be the best route runner, best player that you can be out there.”

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Despite a frustrating season, Moore did provide a pair of game-winning touchdowns vs. Green Bay that NFL Network ran on repeat all offseason long.

He’s always been a player who wants the ball when the stakes are highest.

Don’t forget. The story of the Buffalo Bills may look quite different if Diggs manages to haul in an Allen heave that traveled 63 yards in the air vs. Kansas City with eight minutes left in the 2023 divisional round. Or if Dalton Kincaid dives and catches the fourth-and-5 prayer in the 2024 AFC Championship. Or if Cooks cleanly muscles the ball away from Denver’s Ja’Quan McMillian in the 2025 divisional round to leave nothing up for interpretation.

Considering Moore has played with bad quarterbacks and bad teams most of his pro career, this trait hasn’t always been on display.

This desire for the football in the clutch is a trait embedded into his football DNA.

“When it’s crunch time,” Moore says, “you always want that feeling that the ball is coming to you. And I’m always ready for that moment based off of practice and seeing the looks and then going out there and executing no matter the look. I’ve always been ready for whatever comes our way at the end of the game — if a play needs to be made.”

Father Time KO’s all wide receivers. At some point. Moore only has one season left in his 20s. Hence, Chicago’s calculation. Head coach Ben Johnson and GM Ryan Poles want Luther Burden II (age 22), Colston Loveland (22) and Rome Odunze (24) to grow with Williams. In our 1 on 1, GM Brandon Beane detailed all the work that went into ensuring Moore still has juice. The Bills studied every route — even when Moore didn’t get the ball — and saw a player who’s still in his prime, a player defenses must circle on the gameplan. “You have to know when DJ Moore is in the game,” Beane told us, “and where he’s at on the field.”

One week of training camp is encouraging.

Terrell dismissed any notion that Moore’s on a decline. Echoing Beane, he saw a wide receiver on that Bears tape who’s still in his prime.

Allen prefers an offense that allows his eyes to scan the entire field and locate the open receiver. But even Allen must appreciate having the ability to predetermine a route to an alpha he knows can win 1 on 1. That element in Buffalo’s offense has been missing.

“In any offense you’ve got to have people that you can depend on in clutch situations,” Terrell says. “Whether it’s a wideout or a tight end, you’ve got to have perimeter players that can win man-to-man because the make-or-break in this league is third down in the divisional round. Third down in the conference championship. Third down for the division. You know what it’s going to be. The defense is going to find ways to create 1 on 1’s upfront and then it’s going to be 1 on 1 on the back end. You’ve got to have guys that can win 1 on 1’s.”

Through rain and shine, all early signs are promising. An offseason vision is taking shape on the practice field. Good thing, too. The Bills may need their offense to carry more weight through September and October as Jim Leonhard gets his defense in order.

There’s no doubt in the mind of Moore.

He can still win this 1 on 1.

He expects to make more late-game magic, and then some.

“Every time I touch the ball,” Moore says, “I’m trying to do something special for the team.”

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