Ryan Poles got some flak from certain people when he made the trade for Chase Claypool this past week. The Chicago Bears GM felt the team needed more of a presence at wide receiver. Paying a 2nd round pick felt too expensive, though. It’s fair to wonder if those same people have similar feelings after what happened on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. Justin Fields completed 17 passes. Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet caught 12 of them. Claypool had two in his first action. Every other receiver combined for two. Nobody exemplified this ineptitude better than Equanimeous St. Brown.
The former Green Bay Packers receiver has been a solid run blocker for the team this year. Sadly that hasn’t translated into much success through the air. He could’ve had a huge moment in that game. It was right there. Chicago faced 4th and 10 from their own 42-yard line. Fields ran to his right and fired a perfect pass to a wide open St. Brown. It should’ve been a huge first down to move the chains and get the Bears closer to field goal range.
Instead, St. Brown may have ruined his chances of any future with the team thanks to a brutal drop that ended the game.
Equanimeous St. Brown did Poles a favor in that moment.
In a matter of seconds, he fully justified the GM’s decision to pursue Claypool. The same goes for Dante Pettis and Velus Jones. They’ve taken turns dropping catchable throws that should’ve gone for big plays. The Bears have grown tired of watching so many great plays by Fields go unrewarded. It’s the job of a wide receiver to make a play for his quarterback. St. Brown felt he deserved an opportunity that never really came in Green Bay.
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Now we’re finding out why that probably was. He isn’t likely to get many more opportunities after that. Claypool will start seeing more action as the weeks progress, and he grows more comfortable in the offense. If Equanimeous St. Brown was ever going to carve out a bigger role, that was his chance. It literally and metaphorically slipped through his fingers. One can assume the Bears will make more changes at the position next off-season.
Claypool had alligator arms. There were two plays where he pulled back because he was worried about getting hit. Then he didn’t go up to high point that 4th quarter pass (with the PI non-call). In one game I can see why the Steelers launched him. Let’s hope he gets better.
Claypool had two drops. The bomb should have definitely been pass interference, but he did get both hands on the ball. ESB = low expectations. Claypool = high expectations. Make that tough contested catch next time and justify Poles making the trade.
HeHateMe30,
My understanding is that EQ and Amon-Ra have a younger brother who is still in college, and is also a WR. So EQ might be the worst WR in his family of 3. We’ll see.
PRESSURE! I think the pressure to not make a mistake is having an effect on several players performance. Sometimes, as an athlete, your focus on the ball becomes lost in the worry of not doing something your muscle memory has been trained to do 1000 times and more. Suddenly, your mind freezes up like the 1st time a small kid steps up to the batters box. He just knows he’s gonna get a beanball and forgets to swing til too late. Even Professionals under pressure have nerves. Especially when you know any drop may be your last!
Such a beautiful ball too! JF1 makes history but his teammates and NFLs Stripped Stooges literally drop the ball for him (again). SHM Some games make think that these refs really should get doxed after the game. This game especially (The egregious grounding pickup, EJs B.S. PI on Waddle, The takedown by Hunter Long on Mohhamad (7:53 4Q) and subsident non-call, and the BIG DOUBLE PI non-call on Claypool) and the whole Mash incident from last year as an example. THEY NEED SOME FUGGING ACCOUNTABILTY!!!!!!!! Honestly, there needs to be reviews, meetings, training, firings, edits to rules, addendums etc. Its… Read more »