DJ Moore doesn’t know how the networks do it, but somehow their cameras catch his every grimace or smirk after a play in which Caleb Williams misses him.
From there, it’s pretty easy to guess where this goes. Those clips spread rapidly through social media and swell into a firestorm about the Bears’ top wide receiver being irritated with their prized rookie quarterback.
It’s a bad look, and Moore knows that, but also doesn’t deny his expressions reflected what he felt in those instances.
“The faces and stuff, they’re just faces,” he told the Sun-Times. “I’m like, ‘Dang, we could’ve connected,’ or something could’ve been better on that play.
“I’m not really worried about what people put out there because, as a person, I’m never frustrated. When a play doesn’t go as well as we wanted it to, I’m [upset], but after that moment, I’m back to the regular me.”
The Bears value “regular me” tremendously. From the moment Moore got to Halas Hall in 2023 as part of a blockbuster trade that sent the No. 1 pick that year to the Panthers and led to the Bears landing the No. 1 pick this year and drafting Williams, he exemplified what they aspire to be with excellence on the field and leadership off of it.
Moore was “an unbelievable teammate” to former quarterback Justin Fields, one source noted, even as the passing game floundered. He has Williams’ back equally, and he’s allowed to be occasionally annoyed by his incremental acclimation.
The bad body language under scrutiny this week happened after a breakdown in which Moore was open in the end zone against the Rams near the end of the first half, and Williams assumed he’d sprint to the back corner. He overthrew him, and FOX cut twice to Moore steaming.
Williams said Wednesday it wasn’t necessarily his fault or Moore’s, but the two being out of sync. He chose to “let everything calm down” then straighten it out with Moore on the bench so that the next time the opportunity arose, they’d “hit for a big one.” Moore declared the disconnect “fixed” and said, “We’re going to go the Caleb way and we’re going to get it right.”
It’s hardly a crisis that a seventh-year veteran sometimes rolls his eyes at what a rookie doesn’t yet know. The gap between the two — Williams will make his fifth start Sunday against the Panthers, whereas Moore has played nearly 6,000 snaps — is a canyon by NFL standards.
“It does test your patience, but you’ve got to know that you were in the same shoes once and everybody was looking at you like, ‘Dude, come on, catch up,’ ” Moore said. “You can’t put more pressure on him. He’s the starting quarterback, and the NFL is hard.
“Even though we may be playing faster than he is at this point, he’ll get there.”
His belief in that last part is crucial. Moore is signed through 2029, so he has plenty at stake in Williams’ success and sees a brilliant future. No teammate raved more during training camp than Moore, calling him “elite” talent.
He knows the other end of the spectrum all too well. Moore has endured inexperienced and inept quarterbacks throughout his career, especially with the Panthers from 2018 through ’22. Impressively, no matter who he was paired with, he averaged almost 1,100 yards over his first six seasons.
He’s glad to have Williams. Waiting for him to fully arrive is challenging for someone who is apt and eager to be the focal point of a thriving pass attack, but Moore expects their cohesion will improve and he’ll develop into a game-changing quarterback.
“I definitely have confidence that it’s going to turn for him,” he said. “We’re on track to be connected, but we’ve just got to get that Wi-Fi all the way up to three bars.”