Steelers Come Out Huge Winners in Chase Claypool Trade
Chase Claypool is no longer a member of the Chicago Bears. Less than a year after the team acquired Claypool for a second-round pick from the Steelers, Claypool is off to Miami to play with Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa on a surging Dolphins offense.
The Bears are sending Claypool and a 2025 seventh-round draft pick to Miami in exchange for a 2025 sixth-round pick, the teams announced on Friday. Claypool is in the final year of his rookie contract that he signed with the Steelers and will be a free agent at the end of the season. The Dolphins have been dealing with an injury to slot receiver River Cracraft.
Claypool’s tenure with the Bears went about as poorly as possible. In the ten games he suited up with the Bears, the team went 0-10. He caught 18 passes for 191 yards and one touchdown in those ten games. It’s anything but what the Bears wanted from Chase Claypool when they acquired him, but now he gets a fresh slate in Miami.
Last year, Claypool was hampered by injuries. This year, though, his effort became a talking point early in the season, and he was benched and then sent home pending a trade. It had been reported earlier this week that the Bears would release Claypool if they couldn’t find a trade partner.
The Steelers traded Claypool to Chicago on Nov. 1, 2022 in exchange for the Bears’ second-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. The Bears were 3-5 then, and the pick was expected to be near the middle of the round. Instead, the Bears lost their final nine games, falling to the bottom of the NFL standings. That pick became the first in the second round, which was No. 32 overall, and landed the Steelers Joey Porter Jr.
While Pittsburgh expected the Bears pick to be high, it has delivered them a promising young cornerback, while the Bears got very little in return. In this trade, one gleaming winner is coming out of Pittsburgh. It proved to be an excellent deal for general manager Omar Khan to get great value back for a player who saw productive years in Pittsburgh like Claypool.
The Steelers, of course, need to show on-field success to make moves like this maximized critically. But in the individual instance here, Khan did “fleece” Chicago into getting a heist of a deal, and he could have one of his cornerbacks of the future in Porter Jr. to show for that process.
Claypool, the Steelers’ second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, played 49 games over two and a half seasons in Pittsburgh. He never regained the heights of his rookie season, when he caught 62 passes for 873 yards and nine touchdowns. But Miami is as ideal of a fit for Claypool as any in the NFL. Despite the loaded room around him, Claypool has a chance to make his impact felt and could be used in unique ways.
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