NFL Rumors: Chase Claypool Apologized to Bears; May Be Traded or Cut If Won't Improve

Chicago Bears wide receiver Chase Claypool came under fire for a disappointing lack of effort in Week 1's 38-20 loss against the Green Bay Packers, namely on plays where he was expected to serve as a blocker on the perimeter in the run game.

Now he's attempting to make amends. As Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported on Sunday (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk), Claypool apologized to his teammates, head coach Matt Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles this week.

Glazer added that if Claypool shows a similar lack of effort going forward, he could find himself deactivated or "possibly even shipped out of town again."

Claypool was only targeted twice by quarterback Justin Fields and didn't record a reception. But it was his lackluster showing as a run-blocker that earned the ire of fans and his head coach alike.

"You all saw the plays that... and again, the perimeter blocking needed to improve for all of us," Eberflus told reporters this week. "And we're gonna get that, work hard to get that done."

"We're looking at all possibilities right now," he added when asked if it was possible Claypool would be inactive going forward. "I'm not going to talk about who's going to be up or down for the game right now, for obvious reasons. We're looking at all things to make our team better—who's going to be up and who's going to be down in terms of the active roster."

Claypool was active on Sunday for a matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however. But his teammates also spoke with Claypool regarding his effort.

"We actually addressed it with him on the sideline," fellow wideout D.J. Moore told The Athletic's Dianna Russini. "Chase knew what was happening wasn't good enough to help us win but at the same time, we didn't want to beat down a dead horse. When you do that in this league, it can have a lot of bad carryover, and it hurts us. We have to correct it."

"It's his passion. Sometimes it gets out of him a little bit. But he knows what he's gotta do," Cole Kmet added ESPN 1000 (h/t Ryan Taylor of NBC Chicago). "He's frustrated. He wants to win, too. No one wants to win more than Chase. I know he was frustrated with some things this past week but he's looking forward to having a good rebound week this week."

The Bears traded a second-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for Claypool last season, a move that has looked like a questionable decision thus far. In eight career games with the Bears, the 25-year-old has registered just 14 catches for 140 yards and no scores.

That the Steelers were willing to so quickly trade him after using a second-round pick to select him in 2020 raised some eyebrows. Claypool undoubtedly has talent and upside, but it hasn't translated to consistent production at the NFL level.

And now that his effort has been questioned, his future in Chicago is on shaky ground.

"I would say really, for anyone on our team, there's a standard for how we're going to play football here and if you can't rise to that standard and live in that space, it's going to be hard to perform for the Chicago Bears," Poles said on ESPN 100 before Sunday's game (h/t Courtney Cronin of ESPN). "With Chase, I think he's a guy that has all the motivation in the world to be a good football player."

"He's got to clean some things up," he added. "We had some good conversations. I expect to see him make those changes and if he doesn't, then we'll have to figure out what we're going to do after that."