Bears Address Darnell Mooney’s Future Amid Trade Rumors

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles says he has heard the trade rumors about them potentially looking to deal away star wide receiver Darnell Mooney before the 2023 season — and they are making him laugh.

Poles adamantly shut down the notion that the Bears are considering trading Mooney during his August 30 post-cutdown press conference, saying the team never had “any conversation” about the possibility of shopping around the 25-year-old playmaker.

“Trade rumors, it kind of cracked me up the stuff that I heard,” Poles said Wednesday. “We turn every stone, we investigate everything, nothing really got serious. Never thought about or had any conversation about trading Mooney, which was interesting. And Trevis Gipson never came to my office and said he wanted to be traded.”

The trade rumors about Mooney essentially spawned from a single Pro Football Focus article from Brad Spielberger, but it was not like he was specifically putting forward that he had intel that the Bears were looking to trade Mooney. He simply pointed out that Mooney — in a crowded receiver room and seeking a new contract — could end up being a surprise trade candidate if he were unhappy with the progress of negotiations, purely from a speculative stance based on how other trade candidates have emerged.

Nevertheless, some latched onto Spielberger’s suggestion and assumed he would not be putting it out into the world if he did not have information suggesting it was possible. At least now Bears fans can stop worrying about it and take Poles at his word.

Darnell Mooney Can Secure Long-Term Future in 2023

The Bears have been making moves to improve their receiving corps since the middle of last season. They traded for Chase Claypool at last year’s trade deadline, then packaged their No. 1 overall draft choice in a deal for D.J. Moore and a haul of picks in March. They also drafted former Cincinnati speedster Tyler Scott in the fourth round in 2023.

Despite the new additions, though, Mooney has a great opportunity ahead of him in 2023 to secure a long-term contract extension from the Bears. He broke out in 2021 as a swift downfield separator and run-after-catch weapon, finishing with 81 receptions for 1,055 yards and four touchdowns. While his production did slump in 2022 with the passing offense, a season-ending injury in Week 12 robbed him of a chance to stabilize.

But Mooney is no longer injured and now has better weaponry around him for 2023 that could carve out better opportunities for him in the passing game. Moore is going to garner the attention of a No. 1 receiver from the defense and Mooney could reap the benefits as the next-best option downfield for quarterback Justin Fields, who has banked quite a bit of chemistry with Mooney over their first two seasons together.

So long as he remains healthy, Mooney could make it easy for Chicago to extend him.

Ryan Poles Staying Tight-Lipped About Extension Talks

Poles officially handed out his first long-term contract extension to a current player at the start of training camp when the Bears signed tight end Cole Kmet to a new four-year, $50 million contract that keeps him in Chicago through the 2027 season. As far as whether the team could ink any more extensions before the start of the regular season, though, the second-year general manager is staying tight-lipped about negotiations.

Mooney is one of the marquee names in the Bears’ impending 2024 free agent class along with Claypool, whom Poles traded a second-round pick to get last November. The Bears also have top cornerback Jaylon Johnson seeking his second NFL contract between now and March 2024, when he second-round rookie deal is set to expire.

“We’re taking that week-by-week,” Poles said regarding both Mooney and Johnson. “I really don’t want to get into it, just kind of creates a distraction in there for the entire year, but we like those guys and would love to have them here long term, so we’ll just stick with our plan.”

The Bears will have the resources to keep whichever players they want. According to Over the Cap, they are projected to have the second-most cap space ($89.3 million) in the league in 2024 and could put a chunk of it to use extending their current starters.