The Pittsburgh Steelers need Chase Claypool to mature, and to mature quickly. He struggled during his sophomore season after excelling during his first year. He had drops, fall downs, injuries, and mental mistakes that quickly got him in the dog house with both head coach Mike Tomlin, and Steelers fans. But all can be forgotten if Claypool bounces back in his third year with a solid season.
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Everyone remembers when Claypool took time to celebrate a catch while the Steelers were attempting a comeback in the final seconds against the Minnesota Vikings last season (click here if you don't). While he didn't admit to fault right after the game, by the end of the season he had a different tune. And it seems to have continued into this season. And he's going to need to make the jump in maturity on his own.
Claypool won't have Ben Roethlisberger in his ear any longer, and it's possible that at some point in the year, he might have a rookie quarterback who will look to Claypool for guidance. For now though, he's working on building a relationship with Mitch Trubisky who at this very moment, seems to have a strangle hold on the starting spot.
Trubisky has taken the "first" reps during OTA's, and everyone from Kevin Dotson, to Claypool have said that they've been told Trubisky is the guy. Now according to Claypool, Trubisky has done a solid job of coming into Pittsburgh and building a relationship with teammates. It all started with Najee Harris who flew to Pittsburgh the day after Trubisky was signed to meet with him. From there, he invited everyone to work out with him in Florida at the beginning of April.
After practice on Thursday, Claypool spoke about his new relationship with his quarterback, and what it's like without Roethlisberger and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
"Yes, the vet presence you know is missed," speaking about Roethlisberger and Smith-Schuster. "But Mitch is doing a good job stepping up, and even Kenny [Pickett] and Mason [Rudolph] are popping in and encouraging us, and you know showing a lot of energy. So it's pretty cool to see that from some of the guys that haven't been here.""Mitch is funny, man. He's a good dude. You can joke around with him. You can just let loose. If you mess up a play, don't beat yourself up over it 'cause you know he's not going to hold that against you."
With Roethlisberger, you always knew what you were going to get. He was going to be extremely hard on the young guys because he wanted them to live up to his standard. There never was an understanding when a receiver made a mistake for the second time. Many times at training camp, you'd see Roethlisberger be-line for someone that messed up. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. It seems like with Trubisky, he will try to teach through a different philosophy.
"So I think that chemistry is really building and building," Claypool said.
If you're a fan of the Steelers, you love to hear that. While everything can be taken with a grain of salt until they actually hit the practice field, it's safe to say that everyone is getting in line and following Trubisky for the time being. With tough games to open the season, the Steelers aren't going to have any time to mess around with losing and trying to figure themselves out. By the time they do that, they could've already lost one or two divisional games.
