ESPN has ripped into the Buffalo Bills for their most aggressive move during the NFL offseason.
The Buffalo Bills made a lot of moves throughout the course of the 2026 NFL offseason. One of those moves was a big trade with the Chicago Bears for veteran wide receiver D.J. Moore.
Over the last couple of years, the Bills have had a clear need at the wide receiver position. They needed to find a No. 1 target for superstar quarterback Josh Allen. Buffalo is clearly hoping that Moore can be that guy.
In order to acquire Moore from the Bears, the Bills gave up their 2026 second-round pick. They also acquired a 2026 fifth-round pick from Chicago.
While Moore should be an excellent addition to the Buffalo offense, there are some who aren't fans of the move.
ESPN analyst Bill Barnwell is among the group of people who don't like what the Bills did by acquiring Moore. He went as far as to name the trade the worst move for Buffalo during the offseason.
Barnwell believes that the trade for Moore came from desperation.
"Though Beane anticipated the market and found real value in re-signing McGovern, every step of the Moore process felt like a franchise acting out of desperation. It's clear that the Bills were frustrated by their wide receivers in 2025, as players such as Brandin Cooks, Gabe Davis and Tyrell Shavers were getting meaningful reps late in the season. Keon Coleman, who hasn't lived up to expectations on the outside, became the public scapegoat for what felt like an organizational policy of trying to hit singles at one of the league's most important positions," Barnwell wrote.
He continued on, sharing more about why he doesn't think the Moore trade was a great move for the Bills.
"Under that lens, making a significant move for a receiver made sense. I'm just not sure this was the right one. Moore is coming off what was comfortably his worst season as a pro, one in which he seemingly fell out of favor with Ben Johnson in the Chicago offense," Barnwell wrote.
"The Bears had little leverage in dealing with Moore, given that they were about to be on the hook for $49 million over the next two seasons for a guy who might have been their fourth option in the passing game heading into 2026. This should have essentially been a salary dump scenario for Ryan Poles."
Those are good points from Barnwell. Buffalo gave up a lot of value for a player the Bears were needing to get rid of anyway.
Only time will tell how Moore performs with the Bills. Hopefully, he becomes a legitimate No. 1 target for Allen, ends up being the missing piece for the offense, and makes everyone forget about the value it took to acquire him.
