Tumult continues to build in Halas Hall.
Bears wideout DJ Moore appeared to walk off to the sidelines Sunday in the middle of a play while quarterback Caleb Williams scrambled with the ball in the first half of Chicago’s eventual 29-9 loss to the Cardinals on the road.
“Wait….DJ Moore walked off the field on a play??” former NFL quarterback Chase Daniel posted Monday on X alongside a video of the play in question.
Star Barstool podcaster and Bears fan Dan Katz wrote, “What the hell is DJ Moore doing here? He just walks off the field mid play?!? How is this any different than Anthony Richardson pulling himself out? It’s actually worse. What a dumpster fire.”
Future Pro Football Hall of Famer J.J. Watt offered a plausible explanation in response to Katz.
“Looks to be limping and goes straight to the bench. So probably felt a tweak. Or, he realized he stepped out of bounds and thus was no longer an eligible receiver, so to eliminate any potential confusion for Caleb, he stayed off the field,” Watt wrote.
Katz said that he “totally get[s] the illegal touching thing,” but added, “It looked like he tight roped the sideline then almost willingly stepped out. Are guys taught to stay out of bounds if they accidentally step out of bounds to avoid illegal touching?”
After watching the video enough times, Watt returned to the idea that his “guess” was Moore felt a tweak.
However, Moore did not exit the game with an injury.
The Bears have now dropped two straight games, with the wheels appearing to fall off in the final moments of last Sunday’s 18-15 loss to the Commanders.
Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels hurled a last-second Hail Mary to Noah Brown as Chicago defensive back Tyrique Stevenson was captured on video taunting Commanders fans while the play had already snapped.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus gave what many felt to be unsatisfactory answers about the lead-up to the Hail Mary and accountability.
In an interview Monday on 670 The Score, Moore was asked if Eberflus has lost the team.
“I wanna say no,” Moore said.
“The message yesterday was we’re 4-4 now, it’s just like being 0-0. But we just got to go out there and start stacking wins, how we did [before the last two weeks]. That’s the best thing you can do, is win, and then let the chips fall after we do so.”
The Bears host the Patriots (2-7) next Sunday.