It was considered a huge gamble when Chicago Bears general manager, Ryan Poles traded for Chase Claypool at the NFL trade deadline.
Despite productive first two seasons, Claypool had fallen out of favor with the Steelers this year due to his attitude and work ethic. He did not endear himself with head coach Mike Tomlin, making his departure easier for them.
This trade did not come without risk as the Chicago Bears traded away their own second-round pick to get Claypool, which is higher than the one they acquired from the Ravens when they traded Roquan Smith. That is a steep price to pay for anyone, much less Claypool.
The hope was Matt Eberflus is a better influence for him than the highly combative and intense Mike Tomlin. Whatever issues he had with the Steelers are behind him and he gets a clean slate. The plan was for offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to get a new weapon for Justin Fields and integrate Claypool to make the offense more productive.
The Chicago Bears need to all be on the same page during the 2023 offseason
After being a limited participant during Wednesday’s practice, Chase Claypool did not practice on Thursday or Friday. He is now listed as doubtful for the Chicago Bears game vs the Buffalo Bills on Christmas Eve. This is just another blow to the attempt to integrate Claypool into the offense this season and hope he builds chemistry for 2023.
So far, Claypool’s highlights consist of a blatant pass interference call he did not get against the Miami Dolphins in his Chicago Bears debut, looking confused and being told where to line up by his teammates in several games, and the injury he sustained against the Packers several weeks ago, in which he fumbled after a first down catch. Let’s not forget, he still has zero touchdowns with the club.
With only two games left this season, this trade raises the following questions:
1. Did Ryan Poles overestimate Claypool’s talent and not do enough due diligence?
2. Is Chase Claypool a player with a bad work ethic and low football IQ?
3. What did the coaching staff, especially offensive coordinator Luke Getsy do to help Claypool incorporate into his offense? And was it enough?
4. Does this coaching staff require certain players with certain skill sets only and have no idea how to utilize players like Claypool?
Perhaps they always expected him to make significant contributions in 2023 when he has the entire offseason to work with Justin Fields as he did with Darnell Mooney. Still, his lack of involvement in the offense is troublesome. It also raises serious questions if this coaching staff were ever on board with this trade because of some of the problems he had in Pittsburgh.
While some had said it takes a long time for receivers to learn Luke Getsy’s offense, former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer blasted his play-calling and lack of usage in his weekly segment on 670 The Score saying it is not a hard offense to learn in his weekly segment before he left to take the University of Alabama Birmingham football head coaching job.
The Chicago Bears will probably never have an offseason like this with over $100 million dollars in cap space in free agency and a potential top-three draft pick in what could be the most important offseason in recent franchise history.
There will be countless debates on who fits the defense better, DT Jalen Carter of Georgia or edge rusher Will Anderson of Alabama until the day of the draft. There will be thousands of mock drafts linking either player to the Chicago Bears.
6 thoughts following the Chicago Bears 25-20 loss to the Eagles
The Chicago Bears lost to the Philadelphia Eagles last week. At least they got an upfront view of a blueprint on how to fix the team come 2023.
However, it means absolutely nothing if neither Poles nor Eberflus is on the same page philosophically after the Chase Claypool trade did not work out at least for this season. Perhaps this is a good time for both men to have an honest conversation and realign their vision for this team before fans lose their patience with both men.