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Chase Claypool made his declaration Wednesday afternoon, just a few hours after completing his first training camp practice with the Chicago Bears.
“It’s the biggest year of my life,” Claypool said. “And I understand that. If anybody thinks my work ethic isn’t matching that, they’re deeply mistaken.
“I get motivated and motivated and motivated. It just keeps building.”
Noted.
Claypool’s bosses will be watching. Chicago Bears fans will be watching. At times, it may feel to Claypool like the whole world is watching the wide receiver, just looking for undeniable proof of that motivation.
But he’s right. This is a big year, the first contract season of his life and his chance to reward Bears general manager Ryan Poles, who showed enough confidence in Claypool last fall to trade away a valuable second-round pick for his services.
That selection wound up being the first pick of Round 2 in April. No. 32 overall. That will always be tied to Claypool’s story in Chicago. And after he contributed only 14 catches and 140 yards in his first seven games as a Bear last season, there’s justifiable worry that Claypool may not be the impact playmaker the Bears thought they were getting when they made the deal.
Heading into the offseason, the Bears challenged Claypool to become steadier, both in his approach to the game and with the way he handles the multitude of stressors NFL life provides. With the start of training camp, a new test of Claypool’s durability, composure and productivity has arrived.
He will have to stay on the practice field, continue showing his comfort and growth within the offense and, as important as anything, make plays on a regular basis.
The skeptics and naysayers, however, have only multiplied in recent months after Claypool missed three weeks of spring practices with a soft tissue injury that neither he nor the team will explain. Then on Sunday and into Monday, Claypool spent a short stint on the league’s “physically unable to perform” (PUP) list as the Bears worked to clear him for training camp.
The outside anxiety multiplied. Inevitably, the head-scratching in Chicago continues.
“I guess I get it,” Claypool said Wednesday. “Maybe people weren’t happy with how I dealt with the offseason. But that’s only the perception that was given to them and not the reality that’s true.”
Whatever that reality is, Claypool isn’t saying. Asked directly to describe where he was physically throughout the spring and summer, he instead offered an evasive response that revolved entirely around his growing knowledge of the playbook.
Asked about Justin Fields’ assertion from earlier this week that he had tweaked his knee during a workout in Florida this month, Claypool pushed back.
“It’s not even my knee, either,” he said. “It’s not even that.”
But it was obviously something. And the hope inside Halas Hall is that this won’t become an ordeal where “it’s always something” with Claypool.
Maybe a sense of calm will help, something Claypool believes is growing now that he has had time to get settled — building bonds with his teammates, better understanding his responsibilities in the offense and not feeling such an urgent pressure to prove himself.
Claypool was asked Wednesday about Fields’ assertion from the spring that he had shown an “attitude change.”
“Once I started getting more comfortable in this system and around the guys, I was able to be myself more,” he said. “I wasn’t so stressed. I was getting more sleep. I was able to help the guys around me and be the leader that I wanted to be.”
Claypool also emphasized how much his growing rapport with his teammates matters.
“Being able to call your teammates brothers is very important,” he said. “I can honestly say that those guys are my brothers. That makes things easier. You don’t beat yourself up over things like when you mess up a play or when you drop a pass. You don’t think anyone is judging you. You just think, like, ‘Damn, I’ve seen him make that play 100 times. It’s all good, brother.’ That matters. And we have a really special group of guys.”
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Now the Bears need to identify their special players, the guys who will step up in the critical moments of games and propel them to victory. Claypool has designs of pledging that fraternity and is confident his current mastery of the playbook positions him for a higher level of success than he had a chance at last season.
“It’s tough to play as free and as fast as you can when you’re running up to the line and trying to think about not only what you have (on the play) but what the guy beside you has. Because that matters as well.”
Bears coach Matt Eberflus noted Wednesday that he sees Claypool’s second-season comfort making a difference with where he is at mentally and emotionally. “I think he’s in a real good spot,” Eberflus said.
The trick now will be staying there through training camp and the preseason, then advancing to a new level when the regular season begins.
Claypool understands the pressure. He knows the stakes. He’s aware of the expectations and the outside criticism. The pen is now in his hands to write the next chapter in the biggest year of his life.
