Film Study: Steelers WR Chase Claypool Must Be Heavily Involved on Sunday

The Steelers, with a bevy of their backups, came excruciatingly close to a victory over the Cleveland Browns last Sunday, falling by a two-point margin that could have eliminated the Browns from the postseason. Instead, they will face the Browns on Sunday night in Pittsburgh. It will not be Mason Rudolph leading the charge but Ben Roethlisberger, which should go a long to lift Pittsburgh’s chances.

Either way, Sunday brought a valuable lesson that the Steelers must follow. The Steelers have to implement Chase Claypool into this offense and use him. For the past one and a half games, whenever activated, Claypool has proven to be a catalyst to open up the Steelers offense.

The Steelers really wanted to hit this route all day. The slant flat combination between Claypool and Vance McDonald was a frequent play call. This is the only time they end up hitting it to Claypool. Claypool uses a slide release to draw the cornerback outside from his inside shade. The cornerback’s hips turn outside and that near hip gets locked the moment his hips freeze to extend his arms for contact. Claypool then armbars over the cornerback’s arms and get enough separation to get open and get the first down. For a guy who has some trouble versus press, this is encouraging.

Obviously, though, Claypool’s explosive plays were the highlights of his day. This is an outstanding catch. The play through contact to even get himself into the window at the catch point is awesome. At times this year, Claypool has not played at his size. He does play to his size and physicality on this play and it is why he is able to make this catch. Boxing out that cornerback in contested catch situations is something that Claypool needs to do at a higher level.

However, he is capable of making plays like this any time. The Browns show a single-high look, so this cornerback is going to be on an island in the Cover 3 scheme. Something that Ben Roethlisberger needs to do this week is trusting his guys to just make plays. That is something that Rudolph did exceptionally well on Sunday. He let his guys go and make plays. That does not mean Roethlisberger has to ball Joe Flacco ball and just launch bombs. No, far from it. But Claypool is a playmaker who can make tough catches. If the pre-snap look obviously leaves him in a one-on-one scenario, give him opportunities. The guy is a freak.

This play is just pure speed from Claypool and nothing more. He stems it quite nicely into the blind spot of the cornerback. Still, this is that height-weight-speed combination that Claypool was touted for out of the draft. Guys at 6-foot-4 should not be able to run this fast. With that type of speed, Claypool can house one if the ball is on the money on any deep pass. Over the second half of the Steelers, the Steelers have neglected this stark advantage over teams. Mike Tomlin continues to mention Claypool’s “rookie wall,” but on Sunday they did want him to get involved and it was clear. As Tomlin intended, it was likely a confidence-building game.

Here is another added benefit of the Claypool vertical success. For Claypool, it will open up all of the routes on the vertical plane. With guys having to respect his deep speed, Claypool can run outs, digs, curls, comebacks, and more on the vertical plane. If they decide to devote resources to slow down those routes, too, then the underneath stuff opens up and others eat in his place. That is a great schematic advantage that the Steelers are just corking out now.

The stats are clear that when Claypool has a big day and is involved, this offense churns in a different way. It makes sense. Think back to that drive versus the Colts where the Steelers bombed in the red zone, but it was a Claypool drive. For the rest of the game, the Colts backed off. Claypool is the Steelers’ best weapon to attack downfield by far. It is not even close. He makes the wheels on the offense turn if he is on because the defense has to back off or get burnt. Part of it is Claypool doing his job. In recent weeks, he is doing just that. Now, the other part is Randy Fichtner and Roethlisberger. Get Claypool involved and give him his deep opportunities and the offense goes with it. Claypool should be an integral piece to the offensive gameplan in the Steelers’ first playoff game Sunday.