Chase Claypool expecting "pretty different team" in second season with Bears

Coming off a 3-14 season with the Chicago Bears, wide receiver Chase Claypool is expecting a large roster overhaul when NFL free agency opens up on March 15 this year.

“We’re a young team over in Chicago and we have a lot of money to spend,” Claypool said in an interview with Daily Hive. “I think we’re gonna be looking at a pretty different team, but in a good way.”

And like many young players, the 24-year-old Claypool himself is — consciously or subconsciously — playing to be one of the athletes NFL teams are willing to spend money on.

In the final year of his rookie contract, Claypool is looking to have a bounce-back season after just one touchdown and 451 yards in 2022.

“This is definitely my biggest offseason yet,” Claypool said. “I think understanding that going into it helps. Having a couple offseasons under my belt has kind of allowed me to, kind of perfect the process as much as I can do things more efficiently and stuff like that.”

Finding his way

When Claypool first broke into the NFL, things couldn’t have gone much better in his 2020 rookie season.

Then a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers after being drafted by the team in the second round earlier that year, Claypool formed a dynamic trio with then 24-years-old receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnston, en route to the team’s 12-4 record and an AFC North title.

Putting up nine touchdowns and 873 yards in his rookie season, Claypool and his teammates looked like they’d found a perfect mix together.

But Smith-Schuster suffered a season-ending injury injured in week five of the 2021 NFL season, before signing with Kansas City the following offseason. Claypool, meanwhile, was shipped to the Bears after week eight of the 2022 season, officially signalling the end of a short-lived era of Steelers receiving corps.

“It was a good transition, in terms of being comfortable with the people around me,” Claypool said of the trade. “It’s close to [my alma mater] Notre Dame. So I actually had some friends in Chicago in the city as well… I thought that I fit in well.”

Claypool also touched on being looked to as a role model by people “outside the NFL,” with his intentions to take on a leadership role inside the Bears’ locker room.

“I’m trying to carry that into the building and be someone that guys can take advice from… I’ve noticed people are in tune and listen when I talk so I think there’s a level of respect there that I really appreciate,” he added.

Let Clay Cook

Claypool has teamed up with Frank’s Red Hot to launch his own Big Game Wings recipe ahead of this Sunday’s Super Bowl.

“I don’t cook a whole lot. But I like to cook the things that I’m able to do. So French toast I make that a lot, chicken tenders and fries, chicken wings and fries. And then yeah, so I like to add a little bit of flavour, a little bit of spice, add a little bit of Frank’s on them.”

And it’s a family connection that first got Claypool interested in the spice game.

“I grew up with a brother who was obsessed with hot sauce, and that’s all he used was Frank’s Red Hot. And I was actually not that good with spice. But it grew on me over the years and now now I’m kind of a spicy connoisseur,” Claypool said.

Reflecting on his roots 

A native of Abbotsford, BC, Claypool is currently back in Canada to unwind, before spending the majority of his offseason training in Los Angeles and Chicago.

“I think the biggest thing that I’ve realized like recently is that like, when I go back home, everything seems so Canadian to me… I’m starting to actually notice accents and stuff like that,” Claypool said. “Every time I come home, I feel I feel like I’m surrounded by Canadians, which is a good feeling… it’s hard to explain.”

Before Claypool was playing in the NFL though, he was just a kid having fun at Abbotsford Senior Secondary School, picking up a jaw-dropping 2,514 all-purpose yards and 29 overall TDs his senior season.

“I set my goals and dreams to play professional football. But I think growing up… I didn’t say, ‘Oh, I’m going to the NFL, so I need to go to prep school, I need to go to this college.’ I was just having fun,” Claypool said. “Then had an offer come across and that’s when I started really thinking about going down to the States… I was really just having fun with football, and not expecting too much.”

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