Amon-Ra St. Brown names Bears receiver most underrated pass-catcher in the NFL originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

The hype around the Bears this offseason feels overwhelming.

The energy around the 2024 Bears is palpable. With a whole cast of new, elite talent on the roster, there’s reason for the excitement. Still, there are players on the team who are overlooked.

Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown believes one Bears wide receiver is the most overlooked at the position.

“DJ Moore,” St. Brown said. “I like his game. It’s not very conventional for a receiver when you watch him play. But he catches everything, literally, everything thrown his way. To tackle him, he’s one of the hardest to tackle in the league. He reminds me a lot of Deebo [Samuel] with the ball in his hands.

“He’s fast, he’s quick. Like I said, when you watch him play, when you watch him run routes, you might think ‘Oh, that’s probably not the best route I’ve seen.’ But he’s getting open at a constant rate, catching everything thrown his way. He’s producing. He’s a guy I feel like is pretty underrated.”

That’s a fair assessment from one of the league’s best.

Last season, Moore cracked the leaderboards in several categories. He finished the season with 96 receptions (13th in the NFL), 1,364 receiving yards (6th in the NFL), and eight touchdowns (8th in the NFL). He also recorded 539 yards after the catch, the 11th-highest value in the league.

Still, it doesn’t feel like the league is ready to call Moore a WR1. But rest assured, he’s getting paid like one.

The Bears inked Moore to the fifth-highest active wide receiver contract in the NFL. He signed a four-year contract extension worth $110 million; the largest deal in Chicago Bears franchise history. His $27.5 million average annual salary marks the eighth-highest in the league and his $43.65 million guaranteed at signing finishes sixth in the NFL.

Of course, now being in a crowded pass-catching room including Keenan Allen, rookie Rome Odunze, Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett, it takes a bit of the spotlight off of him. But that’s OK. Moore has finished four of his last five seasons with 1,100+ yards.

We’ll see how he follows that up this season.

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