Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney has a new mindset heading into the 2023 season.
Mooney appeared on the St. Brown Brothers’ podcast on The 33rd Team, where he discussed his goals for the upcoming season, where he’s not worried as much about garnering respect for his play.
“Do whatever I can do for my team, or whatever,” Mooney said. “I mean ball out, of course. Dominate. Not really on the ‘respect my name’ anymore. I’m just disrespecting everybody now. I don’t really care about respect no more. Other than that, I just want to win. I don’t really care about anything else, for real.”
There were high expectations for Mooney in 2022, following an impressive sophomore outing with 81 catches for 1,055 yards and four touchdowns. But Mooney failed to build on that in his new role as WR1. To make matters worse, Mooney suffered a broken ankle in a Week 12 game against the New York Jets, cutting his season short.
Now, Mooney is entering a contract year where there’s a lot on the line. Mooney believes he’ll be 100 percent for the start of the 2023 season, where his job will be made a lot easier by the addition of new WR1 DJ Moore.
After all, Mooney thrived as the WR2 during his career year in 2021. Now, with quarterback Justin Fields expected to take the next step in the passing game and the addition of Moore, Mooney could be a beneficiary back in the role of WR2. And perhaps earn himself a contract extension along the way.
