Arguing with myself over D.J. Moore

DJ Moore. What do you do with him? He was drafted in the 4th, sometimes sooner and around the WR15. He’s currently around WR44, which makes him a huge bust so far this season. So why should you hold on to hope, or why should you cut bait and move on from the young Panthers wide receiver?

What about his targets? Isn’t volume king?

Positive me - He is still at a good pace in terms of targets. He averaged 9 targets per game last year, and he is at 8 this year so far. He is out there for 80%+ of the offensive snaps. You drafted him based on his volume, and that hasn’t changed.

Negative me - He’s losing targets to Robby Anderson, who is on pace to average 8.8 targets per game this year, which is a stark contrast to Curtis Samuel from last year who averaged 6.6 targets. Moore is the clear number 2 on the team, which isn’t what he was drafted to be. In the 4th round, you are generally looking for your WR1. Or, maybe a WR2 if you drafted a WR in the late 1st or early 2nd.

Positive me - Moore is not the number 1 on the team, but was drafted because of his volume, which is still there. Drafted in the mid 4th, sometimes later, he was the 15th WR off the board. Moore only had 4 TD’s last season. Thinking he would have more then 6 TD’s this year was nothing but wishful thinking. There is plenty of time for him to match if not exceed his touchdown total from last year. Panthers (at the moment) have a week 13 bye, so you don’t have to worry about Moore being out a game during the middle of the season. And he will get that week to rest for the fantasy playoffs.

Negative me - Moore was drafted around guys like Juju, Cooper, Kupp, and Ridley. All who have outshined him by close double his points, except Juju, who is a game behind right now. Also, his red-zone targets kill him. So far, he has 1. Anderson has 6, and Samuel has 3. The 3rd or 4th option, behind the RB, in the red-zone is never good.

Has the new QB and coach hurt him?

Negative me - Yes, it has. The Panthers wanted to bring someone in and did with Anderson, who has taken over after years of being just average. Bridgewater is an okay QB, but there is a reason he wasn’t a starter last year.

Positive me - Let’s talk about Bridgewater. He is having a career year in terms of completion percentage. His 73% completion percentage is excellent for NFL standards. With the volume that Moore is still getting, that means more catchable balls. It’s taken all teams a few weeks to figure things out. With no offseason or preseason to work out the kinks, we see it play out the first few weeks. Not to mention they lost the best RB in the game in Chrisitan McCaffrey. He will be back in a week or two, which should open up the passing game. There is hope that the next few weeks should show more points for DJ Moore.

Negative me - Won’t a CMC return mean even fewer targets for Moore? Not to mention the tougher schedule coming up? The coaching staff seems to favor a big body receiver like Anderson, who is 6’3 compared to Moore at 5’11”.

Positive me - Mike Davis and the RB’s in Carolina have been seeing CMC level targets, so that won’t change. Yes, the schedule coming up is more challenging, but there are games where we could see a lot of scoring. Two games in the next four against Atlanta, who can put up points, not to mention the Saints and the Bears. In all games, we could see a more pass-heavy game script. The coaching staff will figure out how to use Moore. Moore’s average yards per target at 16.0 compared to Andersons 13.5 and Samuels 10.0. They are throwing the ball 56.2% of the time compared to running it 43.8% of the time.

So what do you do with him?

Positive me - You hold. Moore’s volume is still there, and he is a serviceable WR2. He’s not the WR1 you were hoping for, but with a 4th round draft price, hopefully, you either loaded up on RBs, or he is a WR2 on your team anyway. In a recent dynasty poll, Moore was preferred over JuJu, who is also the number 2 on his team but has more points. Sure, if I could package him and a flex player for a better WR, I would do that. I think his name carries with it that hype still. Yes, you are disappointed in him if you drafted him, but the other owners don’t have that with him and may even want the name and the volume. A price check poll on Moore shows he is still worth a 1st round pick. The range was from an early 1st and more to an early 2nd. You won’t be able to get that from anyone on your bench or off waivers.

Negative me - Bench/trade him. He’s the WR 44. He might be a flex player now that we are in bye weeks but until he shows me something I can’t see myself confidently starting him. I would gladly take JuJu over Moore. JuJu has already scored 39 points and is now past his bye. I get him for the rest of the season. Moore also lost in a poll to CeeDee Lamb (dynasty). I don’t want to be missing a guy if he does get better in the last week of the regular fantasy season when I need a win. I certainly won’t cut him, but he will be riding the pine till he shows me something.

This article was written by Dustin Ludke (dunit13dl). If you’re a member of the Poll Sports community and are interested in contributing to the Poll Sports blog, send us a note at info[at]pollsports[dot]com