Chicago Bears Give Fields Help With Trade for WR

After trading away two defensive players in less than a week, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles adds help for Justin Fields, acquiring wide receiver Chase Claypool.

The roster overhaul continues for the Chicago Bears. After trading two defensive stars, Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith, in less than a week, general manager Ryan Poles got some help for quarterback Justin Fields. He acquired Chase Claypool from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Poles did not wait to use his 2023 second-round picks. He shipped one of his two second-round picks to Pittsburgh for Claypool.

This season, Claypool has 32 catches for 311 yards and a touchdown. Those numbers would put him solidly as the second-best target for Fields. His yards are almost double the amount of the Bears’ second-leading receiver, Equanimeous St. Brown.

Many people were scratching their heads when Poles did not do much to help develop Fields. He signed St. Brown, Dante Pettis, and Byron Pringle as free agents, picked Velus Jones in the third round of the draft and traded for N’Keal Harry. St. Brown and Pettis have been hit-or-miss, with each of them having costly drops. Pringle played in only three games before an injury put him on injured reserve. Harry was also on injured reserve and has only played in two games. He has just 3 catches for 38 yards but does have a touchdown.

With Pringle close to coming back, Harry getting in game-playing shape, and now Pool in the wide receivers room, Fields could start to thrive. He already showed a big improvement over the last three games compared to how he did earlier in the first five games.

Claypool was the Steelers’ second-round draft pick in 2020. He had more than 800 receiving yards in his first two seasons and has a total of 12 touchdowns. However, Pittsburgh has gone more with Diontae Johnson and rookie George Pickens as their outside receivers. Now he gives Fields a big body (6-foot-4, 238 pounds) and athletic receiver on the outside.

The Bears needed someone other than Darnell Mooney to step up but haven’t gotten anyone to do so. Now Poles picked up someone who can do the job. With him on the outside with Mooney, some of the other receivers could line up at the slot. On the other hand, Mooney could play more in the slot (where he’s had some success) if Harry (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) shows he could play on the outside.

Claypool is still on his rookie deal that runs to 2023. He is relatively cheap and has a big upside.

Poles has shown that he isn’t going to just sit still until the offseason to do what he can to fix this roster. The ink wasn’t dry on the acquisition of his second second-round pick before he traded it away.

With Claypool, Fields also has another deep target. In his first two seasons, he averaged 14.1 and 14.6 yards per catch, respectively. This season, with a drop in targets, his average is 9.7 yards. However, Fields showed he is an accurate passer on the deep ball so having both Mooney and Claypool as possible deep targets helps him.

The acquisition of Claypool is the first really exciting move to help Fields. Fields is showing great improvements despite the lack of talent surrounding him. The receivers had multiple drops in the end zone as the Bears were attempting a comeback against the Dallas Cowboys last week. Who knows what would happen if they caught those passes.

It will be interesting now to see how Claypool fits into this offense. At any rate, we know that Fields is happy for the help.