Caleb Williams and Bears receiving options

The Chicago Bears traded wide receiver DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills earlier this off-season. In return, they received starting center Garrett Bradbury, who is going to replace Drew Dalman. As fans are well aware, Dalman, the 27-year-old Pro Bowler, suddenly retired at the age of 27.

Trading Moore made a great deal of sense for Chicago in multiple ways. First, they freed themselves of his massive cap hit. Secondly, he had seen his role on the offense diminish substantially under new head coach Ben Johnson.

In 2023 and 2024, Moore was Chicago’s most-targeted wide receiver and accumulated over 2,300 receiving yards during that time. Last year, though, he had just 652 yards and saw his targets cut from 140 to 85.

The Chicago Bears have quality receiving targets for Caleb Williams

While 85 targets were a significant drop in quantity from 2024, they still ranked second on the Bears team. With Moore gone, the rest of Chicago’s young group of pass catchers will get opportunities to contribute more.

The most vital of these, though, is tight end Colston Loveland, who led the Bears with 58 receptions, 713 yards, and six touchdowns as a rookie in 2025. His 82 targets were third on the team. Clearly, he will be a focal point in the passing game going forward, and may emerge as one of the NFL’s best tight ends very soon.

With Moore not taking up targets, there will be more opportunities for Rome Odunze and Luther Burden to make bigger impacts, something bettors at online bookmakers and sweepstakes casino sites are banking on.. Last season, Odunze led the Bears with 90 targets and 15.0 yards per reception, but had just 44 receptions for 661 yards. He did, though, tie Loveland for the team-lead in touchdowns with six.

Burden had the highest success rate among Bears pass catchers, pulling in 47 of the 60 passes thrown his way. He ended the year with 652 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Both Burden and Odunze will likely see their production increase with Moore no longer on the team.

Free agent pass catcher the Chicago Bears could add for Caleb Williams

While Chicago will return a good core group of young pass catchers, they will need to add some depth behind them. To that end, there are several free agents that they could explore signing now that the big names (and most expensive players) are off the board.

• Stefon Diggs
• Christian Kirk
• Deebo Samuel

The problem with the three wide receivers listed above is that they are all veterans and on the back-nine of their careers. Diggs, especially, may dominate targets away from the Bears’ young wide receivers, which they may want to avoid. Still adding him on a short-term deal may be beneficial to Williams.

Kirk and Samuel are used to playing in systems in which they are not the most-targeted pass catcher, and would make more sense.

Wide receivers the Chicago Bears could get for Caleb Williams in the 2026 NFL Draft

Of course, the Bears could opt to look to the NFL Draft for some needed wide receiver depth. If they do not want to use a first round pick on one, as they have other pressing needs, they could take one of any of the following on Day Two:

• Chris Brazzell II
• Malachi Fields
• Chris Bell

All three of the receivers listed above are six-foot-two or taller and would give Williams big targets downfield. All are graded highly in regard to their route-running, and all are ranked between the sixth and fifteenth pass wide receivers in the NFL Draft.

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