Every morning when Bears wide receiver DJ Moore and running back D’Andre Swift see each other at Halas Hall, they instantly get a read on each other’s mood without saying hardly anything.
They grew up together in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia and know each other well enough to have an entire conversation through facial expressions.
Moore basically has a screening process to assess how Swift is doing. If Swift greets him with a big grin, all good. “You know it’s a go,” Moore said. A half-smile? “We’ve definitely got to talk,” he translated. And then there’s the code red, a simple, “Yo,” and a head tilt.
“Then I know we’ve got to have a deep talk,” Moore said.
“At this point it’s just silent,” he elaborated. “You already know how each other feels. It just depends on a look.”
In eight NFL seasons, Moore has pretty much seen it all. It’s understandable that he’d have a been-there-done-that perspective at this point. But even he can’t believe this really happened.
Not only have he and Swift gotten to play together for the Bears, but they also brought in wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus this season. Zaccheaus grew up just across the Delaware River in New Jersey and ran track against Moore — “DJ was slow as hell,” he said — and played with Swift at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School. All three were on the same seven-on-seven team.
More than a decade later, they’re living any kid’s dream: Playing in the NFL with their best friends. The trio talked recently with the Sun-Times about the origins of their bond and how stunning it is that they reconnected with the Bears.
“Sometimes it’s surreal,” Moore said. “When Dre got here, I was out-of-this-world happy and I’m still, like — every day when I see him come in the building, we just light up. And with O.Z. coming in this year, oh yeah, it’s a party now.”
Swift said, “Everybody doesn’t get that opportunity… It’s a blessing.”
Zaccheaus added, “It’s kinda crazy.”
Moore, 28, arrived first when the Bears traded for him ahead of the 2023 season, then they signed Swift, 26, as a free agent the following year. They picked up Zaccheaus, 28, on a one-year deal in the recent offseason.
After wide receiver Rome Odunze, Swift is second on the team in yards from scrimmage (272), followed by Moore (188) and Zaccheaus (140).
Swift and Moore go back the farthest, but the details are hazy. Swift thought they met when he was in middle school and Moore had just started high school, but Moore thinks it started when they were “little kids” and remembered noticing Swift’s talent in Pop Warner football.
“When he used to be making everybody miss, and [stuff] it was like, ‘Yo, he’s going to be special,’” said Moore, whose children refer to Swift as Uncle Dre.
Sports were central to their relationship. Moore would sleep over at Swift’s house the night before a seven-on-seven game. They’d go watch friends’ games if they didn’t have one themselves. Moore, who went to Imhotep Institute, ran the 400-meter race in track, Swift ran the 100-meter and they both ran the 200-meter.
Outside of that, they mostly would “chill at the crib,” Swift said, and one time Moore’s mom let him go to Las Vegas with Swift’s family. Their age difference was irrelevant.
“We were close — if you saw him, you saw me,” Moore said. “There’s no older brother, younger brother; we’re just bros. We’ve been through almost the same things and grew up the same way.”
When Swift got to St. Joe’s, Zaccheaus was ahead of him at running back, so he played slot receiver, which is what Zaccheaus now plays for the Bears.
The three were mostly inseparable until, ironically, sports split them up. Moore went to Maryland and Zaccheaus to Virginia. When Swift graduated two years later, he went to Georgia.
“Seeing how those two guys did it showed me the way,” Swift said.
Moore was the Panthers’ first-round pick in 2018, Zaccheaus made the Falcons as an undrafted rookie in ‘19 and the Lions drafted Swift in the second round in ‘20. Swift and Zaccheaus reunited in Philadelphia in ’23 when the Eagles traded for Swift and signed Zaccheaus.
Then, when the Eagles’ season ended and Swift was about to hit free agency, Moore hit him up about coming to the Bears.
“I told him to let me know what he wanted to sign for and I’d see if I could get it done,” Moore said. “He thought I was joking.”
He wasn’t.
Zaccheaus signing this year pushed it over the top. He and Swift have lockers near each other, and Moore is in the corner across from them. That would’ve blown their minds as kids. As a bonus, they’ll play in Philadelphia together next month when the Bears visit the Eagles.
The chance of anyone making it to the NFL is minuscule, but for all three to not only get there, but play on the same team was something they could only have imagined. And now it’s reality.