Chicago Bears Issued Warning To Claypool After Week 1 Debacle

While head coach Matt Eberflus publicly denied that Chicago Bears wide receiver Chase Claypool failed to give a proper effort in Week 1, privately they acknowledged it and issued him a warning about it.

When you lose your last 10 games of the season, make adjustments, and then proceed to lose the first two games of the new season, things can start to get ugly. That is where we are at with the Chicago Bears.

With 12 consecutive games lost, the honeymoon is over for many on the team. The fans are already calling for heads to roll and the new regime only has 19 games under its belt. Additionally, players like quarterback Justin Fields and wide receiver Chase Claypool are getting roasted.

Things won’t get any better this week as the Bears take on the reigning champions, Kansas City Chiefs. With it comes the old topic of Chicago passing on Patrick Mahomes for Mitchell Trubisky.

Of course, that was the old regime. However, it does not matter to the fans. Each time they see Mahomes win a championship and/or MVP trophy they are reminded of what happened. That just adds fuel to the fire roaring around Halas Hall.

Referring to Claypool, the public received different information on the situation. Publicly, head coach Matt Eberflus denied that Claypool’s problem was a lack of effort. He claimed that it was an improper technique. He went on to say that Claypool used proper technique in the week of practice but for some reason, he didn’t in the game.

Then wide receiver D.J. Moore spoke about it and said the players spoke to Claypool about his lack of effort during the game.

Now, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports (via Pro Football Talk) reports that if Claypool had another half-assed effort the team would deactivate him or possibly ship him out of town.

It is not good when conflicting reports come from different team representatives. The coach said one thing when we see something different come from a player and the team.

This team is disjointed both on and off the field.

To his credit, Claypool seemed to understand that he deserved to be on the hot seat. He apologized to team officials and his teammates. In Week 2 he was more animated. He still only caught three of the eight targets that went his way, though. Despite that, he did have his first touchdown catch in a Chicago Bears uniform. Additionally, he blocked much better. There was even a play in which he got a pancake. He took the criticism to heart and did better.

Now let’s hope no one has to threaten him again and he motivates himself. He is in the final year of his rookie contract so if he wants to continue to play and earn a big contract he needs to perform like it. He has 15 games to turn the narrative around.

So do the Bears.

From what we’ve seen from the Chicago Bears so far this season, there is nothing to indicate that they’ll even put up a good fight, let alone actually win this upcoming game. They are only two games in and the team is a mess.

Coming back to Chicago 0-3 will just make the negative talk around the team grow even more. If the Bears players thought that the boo birds were bad in the middle of their Week 1 game, wait until they hear them while owning a record of 0-3.