The Pittsburgh Steelers made one of the best trades the organization in recent memory in 2022 when they dealt Chase Claypool to the Chicago Bears for a 2023 second-round pick. The Bears finished with the worst record in the league, so that second-round pick wound up being the 32nd overall. The Steelers used the selection on Joey Porter Jr., who has yet to see much playing time, but has impressed whenever he has been on the field. Claypool on the other hand, has been a disaster since going to Chicago.
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Claypool warming up prior to game with Bears
Former Steelers Wide Receiver Is A Healthy Scratch
Claypool has not had much success since arriving in Chicago, after all, he hasn't won a football game since Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season when he was still with the Steelers. That's over a year ago. Since being in Chicago, he has been called out more than once by his coaches for his poor effort and lack of motivation to get better. It was reported the coaching staff was unhappy with his offseason progress. Claypool responded to these reports by giving one of the laziest performances the NFL world has ever seen in the Bears Week 1 matchup against the Green Bay Packers.
Throughout a lot of the offseason and during 2023 training camp, many Bears had begun the process of comparing Claypool to Porter Jr., in order to see who "won" the trade. Porter Jr. played well in the preseason games, but he did have a few rough preseason practices which the national media got a hold of. Of course, Bears fans went to town with this. They all began saying Claypool was worth the second-round pick and Porter Jr. was a bust. However, Porter Jr. hasn't seen the field a ton during the 2023 regular season, but Claypool won't be seeing the field at all in Week 4.
Associated Press
Steelers' Joey Porter Jr. defending a pass against the Cleveland Browns
Claypool is reported to be a healthy inactive for the Bears Week 4 matchup against the Denver Broncos. Many are speculating that this decision made by the coaching staff is in direct response to Claypool's comments from earlier in the week, where he call out the offensive coaching staff for not using him right within their system. He said he wasn't being used to the best of his abilities.
Some have dubbed this game between the Bears and Broncos as the "Caleb Williams Game", as these two clearly look like the two worst teams in the NFL and both could be in the running for a new quarterback next season. It is expected that at the end of the season , these will be two of the teams with the worst records that will be competing for the number one overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
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Former Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool
Claypool spent half the season of 2022 in Chicago, and has played three game so far this season. In that time he has yet to eclipse 200 receiving yards and has caught just one touchdown, and in the three game this season, he has recorded just four catches. Claypool has yet to be able to perform at the same level at which he did during his rookie season back in 2020 with Pittsburgh. During that year, he had nine receiving touchdown and two rushing touchdowns, over 870 receiving yards while catching 62 balls.
He fell off initially in Pittsburgh, and Mike Tomlin and the rest of the organization had seen enough and decided to trade him away. Now, Chicago is dealing with the same thing. He is making comments blaming others in the media and showing his immaturity by not taking responsibility for his inability to perform at a high level. This was the same issue Claypool ran into towards the end of his tenure in Pittsburgh, and it seems his career could be coming to an end if doesn't make a serious attitude change going forward and find a way to perform better on the football field.
What do you think of Claypool being a healthy scratch in just Week 4 of the season? Let us know in the comments below!
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