Some things never change. The Chase Claypool hype train left the station in Chicago destined for Miami. Claypool failed to make much of an impact with the Bears, despite the franchise trading an early second-round draft pick for his services just under a year ago. Claypool never became the top target Ryan Poles envisioned for Justin Fields.
Earlier this week, Claypool was traded to the Miami Dolphins for a late-round pick. It essentially served as Poles and the Bears admitting defeat on their initial deal, and shipping a problem out of town. Claypool had grown frustrated over his role with Chicago, just as he did with the Steelers. Evidently, looking within isn't an option for this embattled wideout.
Why isn't Chase Claypool playing for the Dolphins this week?
Mike McDaniel was impressed with Claypool during his first week in Miami, but evidently not enough to give him some consistent playing time.
"He's done an impressive job," McDaniel said. "The system that he's going in is very specific. A lot of different words mean different things, and he's definitely hungry and ready to contribute."
Yet, McDaniel and Claypool want to get this right, which is why it's safe to assume Claypool isn't on the field this week simply because he hasn't received ample opportunity to learn the offense. This is not some sort of tell-tale sign on how Claypool fits with the Dolphins. By most accounts, things are going just fine in that department.
"There's a lot of things in play there in terms of the specific defense and what we actually need in this particular game," McDaniel continued. "But it's really just evaluating that and what he offers to the team in his current state relative to the other guys and what roles would those be. So a lot of that intentionally has to be cloudy for competitive purposes."
There was also some speculation that Claypool could play tight end with the Dolphins, but McDaniel put those rumors to bed as well.
