Joshua Zimmerman
The Bears selected Darnell Mooney with the 173rd pick in the 2020 NFL draft. A four year starter at Tulane with a breakout Junior year, Mooney caught 48 passes for 993 yards, eight Tds and a yards per catch rate 6th in the FBS. He had a lot of concerns, enough to not even be projected to get drafted. NFL Analyst Lance Zierlein said “he’s built like a stick and has trouble dealing with physical route matchers”. Despite the doubt he has turned into the Bears Wr1 and is on the verge of becoming a superstar.
Improvement
Mooney has had a chip on his shoulder his entire career being considered small and a kid that had one scholarship offer out of high school. He has always been pushing himself to be great. Bears wide receiver coach Mike Furrey said Mooney’s “Mindset reminded him of his former Rams teammate Isac Bruce”, a hall of famer and His “desire and Passion are rare”. Mooney would even go to the practice facility at Midnight. That kind of work ethic helped him take a jump in his second season despite his size. He went from 61 Rec, 631 Receiving yards, to 81 Rec, and 1055 receiving yards. The best on his team and top 20 in the league last year
Mooney even put up 142 combined catches, the most ever by a bear through his first 2 seasons. He became lethal after the catch and after contact. He went from 254 YAC, 75 YACON, to 381 YAC and 123 YACON. This is very impressive because the Bears offense was horrible. They were ranked 27th in points scored, 24th in offensive yards. In passing, 30th in yards, 29th in both touchdowns, and interceptions. Imagine what he could do if he played for a good offense.
Better than expected
There were 25 wide receivers taken before Mooney in his elite receiver class. A record 13 receivers were taken in the first 2 rounds, and so far he has proven to be better than almost all of them. Through his first 2 seasons he ranked third in catches (142), fifth in receiving yards (1,686) and seventh in touchdowns (eight) among his class. Mooney also ranked 5th in YBC (1,051), and 7th in YAC (635). Out of all the guys within the top 10 on those lists only 2 people including Mooney were taken later than the 2nd round. The talent was always there, he had a 4.38 combine time. One NFC Team executive said “Like the big plays athletic talent hate the size and hands”. It clearly seems to be that his athletic ability was able to overcome his size.
The Future
Hopefully the bears can turn things around so Mooney can get some more attention. He hasn’t gotten a lot of targets this year and the bears just traded for Chase Claypool. The best thing he can do for now is to keep producing and proving people wrong. Hopefully he can get a trade soon so he can go to a good team and light up the league.
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