The Bills heard all offseason that they overpaid for DJ Moore. One game in, the wideout proved to be worth it.
Moore hauled in five passes for 100 yards and a touchdown in Sunday's 36-31 win over the Texans, doing it against one of the league's best defenses.
The yardage total put him in rare company. Moore became just the second Buffalo player to top 100 receiving yards in his team debut. The only other was John Brown, who went for 123 yards and a score on seven catches in 2019 and went on to post 72 grabs for 1,060 yards and six touchdowns that season.
Moore hasn't reached 1,000 yards since 2023, though he's no stranger to 1k+ yard seasons.
He spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons together with Bills head coach Joe Brady and the Panthers in Carolina,
where Brady was the offensive coordinator. Moore put up 1,193 yards in their first year together and 1,157 in their second.
The connection with Josh Allen didn't happen by accident, either. Moore said the two worked at it all summer.
"Yeah, I think our off-field chemistry and friendship has accelerated the on-field connection," Moore told 13WHAM's Dan Fetes. "We talk almost every other play about something dealing with a route."
Moore said Allen's personality makes the work easy, until it's time to get serious.
"You having fun with Josh, but when you step on the field, he's a whole different animal, and you got to lock in yourself because you know he wants to win, and win bad," Moore said. "In my gut, that's what I'm willing to do. Go out there and win every rep for him, and the rest of the receivers are going to do the same thing."
Buffalo sent the Bears the No. 60 overall pick in the trade, a price critics called steep. Allen and Brady never wavered, and their confidence weren't based on outside noise but what they were seeing in-house, in the film room, and on the field.
The season opener also marked the welcome return of Josh Allen's long ball passing game that was a signature of his tenure in Buffalo before missing that component on a consistent basis in recent seasons.
He had five completions of 30-plus yards against the Texans, which was his most in a game in his career.
"We love chunk plays," the QB said after the game. "That's how you score 36 points. You give yourself opportunities to score in four, five plays in a drive instead of long, methodical, 13, 14, 15 plays. That's also a way to win football games."
One game into his Bills tenure, Moore already looks like the WR1 this offense has been missing since the departure of former WR1 Stefon Diggs a couple seasons ago.
His presence has opened up the passing game and unlocked the Bills offense early for Buffalo.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: DJ Moore credits Josh Allen for historic Bills debut in win vs. Texans
