The Los Angeles Rams knocked the Chicago Bears out of the playoffs last season and now Ben Johnson’s team is hoping that addition by subtraction leads to more additions. The Bears traded wide receiver D.J. Moore to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday, a day after the team learned that young center Drew Dalman is retiring at age 27. The Bills swapped a second round pick for a fifth to acquire Moore.
SI’s Albert Breer threw some rumors on the fire, tweeting that Chicago has shown interest in free agent center Tyler Linderbaum and trade block regular Maxx Crosby.
The Rams would have not had any interest in Moore, a 29-year-old receiver coming off of perhaps the worst statistical season of his career with a 58.8% catch rate and 682 yards. Numbers that are bound to recover as Moore upgrades his quarterback situation from the inaccurate Caleb Williams to recent MVP Josh Allen.
Dalman retired just one year into a three-year, $42 million contract.
What could affect L.A. is Chicago’s willingness to become buyers with the money that comes off of the books this week, including a potential release of Tremaine Edmunds that would save $15 million more.
The Rams haven’t been linked to Linderbaum, a three-time Pro Bowl center whose wrestling background has drawn comparisons to him as “the Aaron Donald of offensive linemen” using hand fighting skills over size to win one-on-one battles. But he’d be a massive upgrade over Coleman Shelton.
There have been some thoughts as to L.A.’s interest in Crosby, although trading a first round pick for Trent McDuffie likely takes them out of the running unless they’re a) willing to give up pick 13 and b) ready to replace one of their starters on the edges who most don’t believe need replacing.
So instead we turn to the more important question of the day:
Are the Chicago Bears more threatening in the NFC today than they were yesterday?
Until Caleb Williams does more than just wow with late-game heroics — throws that only become necessary because of his early and mid-game blunders — OR they go from a bottom-10 defense to a top-3 defense overnight, the Bears are never going to win a meaningful playoff game in the current era.
Chicago barely defeated a mediocre Packers team in a wild card game last season, needing to recover from a 21-3 deficit and getting a lot of help from Green Bay’s latest playoff choke job.
The Bears went 2-2 against playoff teams last season, only beating the Packers and the Eagles.
And although they took the Rams to overtime in the divisional round, how much of an assist did they get from the weather that day in order to overcome Caleb’s three interceptions?
As long as Chicago is pointing the finger at players like Moore instead of fixing their actual issues that held them back at quarterback and defense, the Bears will continue to make big moves in the offseason and yet go nowhere in the postseason.
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