Earlier this month, the Carolina Panthers made a massive move to secure the top overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft from the Chicago Bears by way of a trade, but it certainly cost them. In addition to several draft picks, the Panthers also sent star wide receiver DJ Moore to the Bears. And it sounds like they didn’t particularly want to.
During a press conference this week, Carolina Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer got brutally honest about the trade, revealing that they didn’t want to trade DJ Moore, calling him “a great member of our team.”
“You never want to — especially someone like DJ,” Fitterer said according to the Charlotte Observer. “You do your best not to [trade players], but the price of this No. 1 pick was too expensive to give up all of these picks and everything else to get there. So, unfortunately, we had to give up DJ, who was a great member of our team, did a tremendous job for us, great locker room guy. It hurt, but we had to do what we had to do to get in this position.”
While Moore likely would have preferred to stay in Carolina with the team, the NFL is a business and everyone understands that at the end of the day.