The Chase Claypool era with the Chicago Bears appears to be officially over. The team has been telling Claypool to stay away, and as he is set to miss his second game, the odds are that he will not play another snap for this franchise. A lot of fans were excited when the Bears traded a second round pick, but we had our reservations from the start. Here is why.
3. The Chicago Bears acted out of desperation
This was always a decision made out of desperation, which never is a great sign. The Chicago Bears went through the offseason and the draft and did not address wide receiver. Many wondered if Ryan Poles set Justin Fields up to fail, but after Fields showed flashes with no weapons, he felt as though he owed him a little bit more than that.
So, he overspent for a wide receiver like Chase Claypool. We have heard the story before, but Poles had every chance to draft George Pickens, who is ascending in year two with the Pittsburgh Steelers. At that time, Poles thought that receiver was not much of a need, and he was sticking to his board. However, when it came time to trade for Claypool, he overspent for a depressed asset, showing us that he did not stick to the same value chart as his draft options.
The Steelers ended up with pick 32 and drafted cornerback Joey Porter Jr. Both Porter and Pickens have done more this year than Kyler Gordon and Chase Claypool. The patient team lets things come to them. The Chicago Bears felt a desperation to take Gordon over Pickens, immediately regretted the decision, and lost out on a chance at Porter to add Claypool.
This is not the attitude you want to see from your General Manager.
2. The Chicago Bears ignored a locker room concern with Chase Claypool
One of the biggest reasons the Pittsburgh Steelers were ready to trade Chase Claypool was because his attitude was not fitting the culture and locker room. He had multiple plays during his second season that showed that his head was not in the game.
Claypool was more concerned with how he looked during the game than how he actually played. There were multiple times when Mike Tomlin made remarks to the media explaining he did not like the way that Claypool conducted himself. This is what made it even more confusing when the Chicago Bears traded for him.
The Chicago Bears went out of their way to build up a culture, or at least that is what they said. When they passed on George Pickens, everyone said it was to build up the locker room. The same was said with Jalen Carter. Why was the same not said with Chase Claypool?
Chicago Bears fans tell themselves that Pickens can only succeed in a culture like the Steelers, but the Steelers told the Bears that Claypool was not a fit for their culture, and the Bears still took him on.
Most Steelers fans are sitting around and reading the Claypool news and saying I told you so. This is a bad outcome but not an unexpected one.
1. The Chicago Bears traded too much given the Chase Claypool contract
The biggest question with trading for Claypool was how much they traded for and how little time Claypool had on his contract. Now, it does not look so bad, considering the Bears can wipe their hands clean of him. Still, even when they traded for him, it was a big question why that would happen for the price and contract.
Claypool is in the last year of his deal, so the Bears essentially had half of a season to find out if they should extend him or not. He had this whole season to prove himself, but if he played well, he had a free pass to free agency and would have wanted to test his options.
So, the Bears were paying a long-term price for a rental from the start. If Claypool did play well in his first couple of games with the Bears, would they have extended him? What if he had five good games, and then came crashing down to earth? Extending someone after that short of a sample is tough to do, but so is extending him as he is about to hit free agency. Did the Chicago Bears have any thoughts about the future when they made this move?
When you consider the cost, the desperation of why they did this, and the fact that he did not fit the culture, you could tell this decision was flawed from the start.