Rumor: Bears' Locker Room Not Happy w/ Chase Claypool

K'Neal or N'Keal?

www.dabearsblog.com/2023/chase-cla

"In late May, less than a month ago, Justin Fields said the following about Chase Claypool: “That’s one thing I’m truly proud to say, seeing his work ethic, his attitude change. You can just see he’s taking another step, so definitely excited for that.” This is a real quote, from the person who will be relying upon Claypool most this coming season. After punishing myself, and surveying all of these aggregated stories re: Silvy’s comment, I did not find a single mention of this quote; not a single attempt to balance the scale, or at least provide some depth to the commentary. Why? Because to do so would require a modicum of work ethic, a semblance of integrity. Not a pint of integrity, a shot. Hell, maybe not even a shot, a thimble full."

hummm......Fields or the idiots....whose opinion do I believe......

I came across the following podcast that spent a lot of time discussing the whole Bears not happy with Claypool story in the media.  It was basically classified as something produced to fill in time when nothing else was happening.  The podcast is by Adam Rank (a nfl.com writer who is a huge Bears fan).  The other participants are Bryan Perez (founder and managing editor at bearstalk.com) and Carmen Vitali (Fox Sports beat reporter for the NFC North).

I don't follow Rank too much as he goes a bit too deep into the Kool-Aid pitcher for me.  But he often brings up some well-developed arguments.  I've been reading Perez's work for several years and he is usually very well detailed in his analysis and also well balanced in his perspective.  I don't read or watch Carmen's stuff very often but she seems to be objective in what she says.

At 11:00/660s into the video, they deal with the Claypool situation.  Both Rank and Vitali basically say they worked their sources in the Bears organization and could find nothing to support the ESPN1000 report.  Vitali went into detail saying that Claypool has been very involved in every step of the offseason ad it is only "an abundance of precaution" that he was not actively involved in the OTAs and minicamp.  She also said that Claypool had been working out with Fields in Florida earlier in 2023 and that he was physically present in Lake Forest for all of the offseason programs and was being held out of the practices by the team.  Her read on it was "I don't know what else you want from him at this point" (around 12:25/1345s in the video).

On another note, Perez goes into the whole Dexter/Carter discussion about 28:00/1680s in to the video.  And the discussion goes into how Poles/Eberflus evaluate players.  Where they go into the importance of overall athleticism and very specific traits for each pick and the role that Poles and Eberflus want the player to take. 

Here is, hopefully, the final update to the whole Claypool saga.



And I know someone will say that DJ Moore wasn't there. So, I found this tweet.



I also heard that Claypool missed the first bit of the workout.  But, I think he as an adequate excuse.