Who is Chase Claypool and how are the Cleveland Browns going to stop him?

The Cleveland Browns need to stop new threat, receiver Chase Claypool

Just when you thought it there might be an opportunity for the Cleveland Browns to kind of quietly tiptoe into Pittsburgh, during what many people were expecting would be a down year, the arch-nemesis Pittsburgh Steelers may have unveiled a new star on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.

A kid receiver named Chase Claypool probably isn’t even taken in your fantasy league, but he got a chance to play on Sunday game when Diontae Johnson was sidelined with a back injury. Claypool made the most of it, scoring an amazing four touchdowns, three through the air and one on the ground.

He was the first Steelers rookie to ever score four touchdowns in one game, and the first Steeler to do it since Roy Jefferson in 1968 (truthfully, it is surprising that the 1968 Steelers scored that many TDs the entire season, because they were not very good back then. They fired their coach that year to hire Chuck Noll, and believe it or not, that was the last time the Steelers have fired their head coach).

Preposterously, the fourth touchdown came on a made-up play variant that the Steelers had never run before, with Ben Roethlisberger telling Claypool to lineup in the spot usually occupied by tight end Eric Ebron. Claypool had to ask Roethlisberger what route to run, so Big Ben had to yell instructions  right in front of the Eagles defense. The Eagles were set up to cover a tight end with linebacker Nate Gerry. Obviously, that was a mismatch. Claypool easily  accelerated away from Gerry and the result was a 35 yard touchdown.

After the game, Philly coach Doug Pederson could not explain how they had a linebacker covering the speedy rookie receiver on that play, using the Hue Jackson plea that he would have to study the film first. On the Pittsburgh side, you can be sure that the film room will be laughing like hell when they review this play. Probably Roethlisberger should be fined for pulling such a stupid stunt, but since it scored a touchdown, coach Mike Tomlin may choose to forgive him this time. And they may add it to the playbook.

Incidentally, another Claypool touchdown had been called back due to a bogus interference call earlier. Maybe Philly is just that bad, but this kid was terrifying. It looked like he could just score at will.

Now, one question for the Dawg Pound is why we have scarcely heard of a guy who is 6-foot-4, 238-pounds and runs the 40 in 4.42, played four years of major college ball at Notre Dame and gained 1000 yards his senior year? Like, wow, man! This is your prototypic big, fast, physical wide receiver that cold weather teams love. He’s perfect for the AFC North. How could the rest of the NFL screw up so badly to let this kid fall all the way to the second round?

The relative lack of press scrutiny, at least, can be partially understood. Even though Notre Dame was 11-2 and ranked 12th in the nation, they were perceived to be underachieving. Anything less than a National Championship is underachieving at Notre Dame, of course. Statwise, their team distributed the ball to a dozen position players and did not generate huge offensive numbers even for their best player.

Coach Brian Kelly tends to keep individual egos in check, emphasizing team concepts and achievements rather than stat-friendly fast-paced offensive football. Hence Claypool may not have gotten as much individual notoriety as he could have at another school, despite being in the perpetual spotlight that comes with being  part of the Fighting Irish football team.

However, the reason why he had to wait until 49th overall to hear his name called in the draft is very hard to understand.  Checking back on the various scouting services from the 2020 draft, there don’t seem to be any major problems, no character issues that anyone is aware of, nothing. They ought to change the name of the team to the Pittsburgh Stealers, because that is what they did on draft day.

One thing the Eagles taught the Browns is to not try to cover the big kid with a linebacker. Just because he is as big as a tight end does not mean he moves like one. Claypool is probably the fastest receiver on the team. JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Washington are more in the range of 4.5. They may need Denzel Ward to cover Claypool in man coverage, though he is giving up five inches in height and forty pounds in weight.

As Browns fans have seen, Ward is not the greatest tackler on the team.  This is not going to be easy.