The Chicago Bears traded for Chase Claypool in a move that had been rumored before and finally came to fruition. While the deal is not too surprising, the return may be. The Chicago Bears just passed on George Pickens twice in the top 50, and now are trading the team who drafted Pickens a top 50 pick for a lesser wideout.
At the very least, it is not a perfect decision. However, the Chicago Bears had to do it. Here is why.
3. Chicago Bears are giving Justin Fields somebody now
There is a real chance that the play of Justin Fields in the last two weeks made the Chicago Bears decide to go all-in and attack by trading for a wide receiver. Through the first six games, it was easy to say that Fields did not have help, but you also said that Fields needs to play better.
Over the past two weeks, you really started to see the play of Fields improve, and you saw that almost all of the shortcomings were due to the help around him. So, the new regime now sees that Justin Fields is a guy to invest in. Still, they needed to get him help.
Chase Claypool is a great bet because the team can play him right now. They do not have to wait until the draft or free agency. Fields and Claypool get to work together on the fly for a couple of months, but then get the entire offseason to come back and build off of what they did.
Beyond that, Justin Fields gets help now, and not next year, and the depth of the wide receiver room improves. We knew that the team was going to add a wide receiver, but adding one now helps not only the wide receiver next year, but it helps Justin Fields this year. Even with a draft pick out of the way, if it makes Fields a better player, it was worth it.
2. Free Agency would not be the answer Chicago Bears
As we noted, adding a wide receiver in free agency or the draft would not help Justin Fields next week. Beyond that, adding a wide receiver in the draft is a crap shoot. You can bet that if Velus Jones was doing what Ryan Poles thought he would that the team would not be this desperate.
However, Poles saw first hand he cannot rely on a rookie to start week one and make things better. Beyond that, it is not like elite wide receivers are going to be free agents. The top free agent wideouts include JuJu Smith-Schuster, Jakobi Meyers, and Allen Lazard. Signing a wide receiver would not give them someone as young as Chase Claypool, as talented as Chase Claypool, and week one of next year would be the first time we get to see them.
We are not saying do not sign a wide receiver and do not draft one because of Claypool. However, now they are not reliant on a rookie right away, and they are not forced to overpay a wide receiver.
The player and the timing fit, so it is hard to say that this is a big overpay from the perspective of Chicago.
1. Chicago Bears have an excess of draft picks
When the Chicago Bears traded for Chase Claypool, one of the first questions was which second-round pick was going to Pittsburgh. The Bears just got a second-round pick from the Baltimore Ravens, so they were sitting on two of them.
As it appears to be reported, the Green Bay Packers offered a second-round pick as well. So, it appears that the Baltimore pick was on the table, but the Steelers think that the Chicago pick will be higher, so they went with that in a bidding war.
So, the Chicago Bears being able to part with the higher pick, knowing they still had another second-round pick is what enabled them to make this trade over Green Bay.
That is also what makes the loss of a second-round pick sting less than it would for other teams. Without the pick, the Chicago Bears still have eight draft picks, and they still have a second-round pick.
The price may be higher than some thought, but the price of anything is always what somebody is willing to pay. Because the Chicago Bears spending a second-rounder does not hurt as much as others, they feel as though a second is valued differently than others. When you consider this, it is easier to digest spending such a high pick on Claypool.