I think we’re going to need another meeting of the Chicago Bears “leadership council” at Halas Hall. Because it’s the Friday before game day and we have Bears players — Chase Claypool, to be precise — publicly airing grievances about how he is being used. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t see this coming from him, of all people.
Chase Claypool Doesn’t Love His Usage
Right Message, Wrong Messenger
In fairness, Chase Claypool isn’t wrong to say what he did. There is no evidence that the Bears’ offensive brain trust is using him properly (or has used him correctly since joining the team last fall). However, Claypool is the LAST person I wanted to hear discuss his usage.
Through three games, Claypool has 4 catche♒s for 51 yards and a touchdown. Extrapolate those numbers over a full 17-game season and it looks like this: 23 catches (on 79 targets), 289 receiving yards, 6 touchdowns. Those numbers aཧre gross. Full stop.
Maybe Claypool needs to do more in order to get the type of usage he seeks. Or maybe the Bears need to send Claypool a message. Something along the lines of “if you don’t like your usage now, then you definitely won’t like it if you got the healthy scratch treatment in Week 4 of what is a contract year.” Perhaps that feels a bit harsh. Then again, it might not be.
After all, the Bears have already publicly dangled sitting Claypool after his effort levels came into question in Week 1. Claypool went viral again for his blocking exploits against the Chiefs last week. For me, this seems like a good time to activate Equanimeous St. Brown (whose run-blocking was a plus last year) and give Claypool a “breather.”
More Bears Dysfunction
There is a part of me that is reading this as I write it and wondering if I’m overreacting. But there is a larger part of my brain that says “stop it right there!” because this represents yet another bit of Bears dysfunction. A season that was supposed to be a building block for better days is turning into a sideshow of comedic proportions.
This is the kind of start to a year that makes you re-think why you even like football in the first place. I’m not going anywhere. But the Bears aren’t doing anything to keep fans they started drawing back this summer when the hope and hype trains were running at full throttle.
In the end, I’m starting to think that while Claypool’s message might be right. But he isn’t really the right messenger for it, which adds to the ridiculousness of it all. D.J. Moore? Yeah, he’d be right to have beef with how things have been going for him since arriving from Carolina. And that feels telling. Justin Fields already shared his disdain for how he was being deployed in Year 2 of Luke Getsy’s offense. All in all, this feels par for the course for these Bears. I can’t wait to see what sort of calamity we get to deal with next.
