I Am On Board With The Claypool Trade To The Bears

A LOT of moving and shaking up there at Halas Hall. Roquan yesterday brings Chase Claypool in today. 

I have seen some people somewhat upset with giving away a 2nd round pick for Claypool. That they'd rather have Roquan than Claypool. That is a fair take to have, but the question is really "would you rather have Roquan at $100M or Claypool on the books for another year and half on his rookie salary?". 

I think the answer there is Claypool because the Bears DESPERATELY need weapons for Justin Fields and while they have a full allotment of draft picks and a shit ton of cap space...the market just isn't there for free agency at the position next year and the Bears have so many holes on the roster that rolling the dice and hoping you get a starter in the 2nd round feels like a gamble if this team wants to make significant strides in Year 2 of this project. 

Claypool is a proven NFL commodity. Claypool walks in and instantly becomes the #2 WR here with Mooney. He's been a playmaker everywhere from ND to the Steelers. That jump ball Fields through up to St Brown...Claypool makes that play. He's a FREAK athlete. 4.4 forty time, a 40 inch vertical, an 80 inch wingspan, and he's doing all of that at almost 240lbs. He will have more opportunities here than he did in Pittsburgh both because of the QB situation and because the Steelers receiver room is always VERY good somehow. I love the idea of giving Fields a guy he can just chuck it up to every once in a while and know that his guy is the biggest, fastest, strongest, tallest, most athletic guy going up for the ball. It's either going to be a catch or incomplete. They don't have that guy for him right now. 

I think it's a pretty elegant solution to filling one of the biggest needs for the team. Ridley just got traded for essentially the same package as Claypool. Ridley is suspended for the rest of this season, so it's 8 more games of development for Claypool with Fields. Fields also makes $10M less. Calvin Ridley is also 4 years older. I think Claypool has more value and you can allocate that money elsewhere to strengthen the team. If Pringle and Harry end up being serviceable or better than serviceable then maybe Mooney, Claypool, Pringle, and Harry are enough. 

And yes...maybe I am biased because I watched basically every single snap of his college career, but he was a FREAK show