D.J. Moore is exactly what the Panthers need

Can you imagine if D.J. Moore was on the Panthers?

The Carolina Panthers are desperate for help. The team boasts a below-average passing offense, and it’s actively hurting the development of Bryce Young. Receiver was always going to be an issue for the team, but the reality is more pronounced than they realized with free agent signing D.J. Chark being a non-factor, rookie Jonathan Mingo struggling to find his footing, and Adam Thielen being effective at times, but woefully inconsistent.

It’s safe to say the Panthers have the NFL’s worst receiving room by a considerable margin, and are now exploring how they could trade for a true No. 1 receiver to save their season. This week Carolina has been potentially linked the likes of Jerry Jeudy, Marquise Brown, or Tee Higgins — depending on whether their respective teams would deal them, but what the Panthers really need is a receiver capable to turning an entire offense around by himself.

They need D.J. Moore.

Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images

I know it’s wild to think of Moore on the Panthers, but his Thursday Night Football performance for the Bears typifies how dominant he can be. A burner on the outside, equal parts strong and shifty after the catch, Moore’s game isn’t dissimilar to a former Panthers player: Steve Smith.

Moore is a rare receiver who can elevate the play of a quarterback. Not many of those guys exist in the NFL — and despite being the only real threat through the air against the Commanders, despite being woefully obvious that Justin Fields was targeting him on almost every down, he still finished with eight catches for 230 yards and three touchdowns.

Certainly some credit belongs to Fields, but Moore truly made his job easy on Thursday night. If you look at Moore’s route chart there weren’t a lot of catches he made off traditional timing routes, but rather consistently found ways to find open space that killed any chance of effective pass defense.

Of course, none of this should be a surprise for anyone who’s watched Moore play throughout his career. Perennially overlooked in the discussion of best receivers in the NFL, Moore had an unbelievable knack for making bad quarterbacks look passable. In 2020 he totaled 1,193 yards with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback, then did it again the following year by netting 1,157 yards with Sam Darnold under center.

It didn’t matter than nobody else was able to offer anything in the receiving game, because Moore was dominant enough to change the game himself — just like he did on Thursday when NO OTHER BEARS’ RECEIVER CAUGHT A SINGLE PASS.

Back in Carolina they would kill for someone like D.J. Moore. Everything the Panthers’ receiving corps does makes life more difficult for Bryce Young. The current unit struggles to make things happen both in and off route, which results in Young needing to squeeze the ball into ludicrously tight windows without much opportunity to YAC. If you paired Young’s ability to throw out of structure with Moore’s creativity in finding space it would be something very special to watch.

Of course, this is all moot. The Panthers will need to comb the league to find receiving help, settling for someone who perhaps has one of the traits that Moore does. There’s no way the Bears would trade D.J. Moore. Who would be dumb enough to do that?