Chicago Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney. Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

Do Bears suddenly have crowded wide receiver room?

By Isaac Nielsen | Last updated 5/25/23

When the Bears acquired star wide receiver D.J. Moore from the Panthers before the draft, GM Ryan Poles made his mission clear: upgrade the WR room. Just a few days later, they added Robert Tonyan. Finally, in the draft, Poles took Tyler Scott , the Darnell Mooney-esque Cincinnati product. All the pieces were in place.

Over the past few days, however, expectations for a few of those pass-catchers were heightened even more. When OTAs picked up, the duo of Moore and QB Justin Fields wasted no time linking up, according to CHGO Sports’ Adam Hoge.

Justin Fields and DJ Moore had a nice day together, connecting early and often (including downfield).

Moore: "It's still a work in progress. Today was a good day to jump start us."
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) May 23, 2023

Moore comes to the Bears with high expectations, as he was the feature piece in the trade for the first-overall pick. His chemistry with Fields was obviously a question mark, however, but one that seems to be beginning to be answered.

While Moore simply had to meet expectations to be valuable to the team in the upcoming season, another pass-catcher had to beat them.

With his somewhat lackluster 2022 campaign, many thought WR Chase Claypool to be a lost cause, especially with the arrival of Moore. However, Fields said in a press conference earlier this week that shouldn’t be the case for Claypool, and he’s hungrier than ever.

.@justnfields on @ChaseClaypool: "Chase has improved tremendously from the end of last year to now." pic.twitter.com/ZvZG7TZYSY
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 23, 2023

If the hype is real, and players like Moore and Claypool pan out, this Bears offense could be explosive. While the outside appears to be all but locked up with those quickly-improving players, a talented group is left vying for scraps.

Mooney, Scott, Equanimeous St. Brown and even Velus Jones, among others, may compete for one or two spots on the field for most snaps. The Bears seem to be dealing with an overcrowding problem, and for an offense looking to establish itself as one of the more explosive in the NFL, that’s a great problem to have.

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