Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Redemption road
Claypool is newest Dolphins player to take path
MIAMI GARDENS — The NFL Redemption Tour never lacks talent. The Redemption Tour always has plenty of opening acts and plenty of headliners.
Ask cornerback Eli Apple or guard Isaiah Wynn, a pair of former first-round picks hoping to resurrect their careers with the Dolphins.
Now comes wide receiver Chase Claypool, the hulking 6-foot-4, 238-pound addition to the roster. Claypool figures to be a nice red-zone target with his size. Oh, yeah, in keeping with the Dolphins’ new offensive tradition of being fast, he has 4.4-second, 40-yard dash speed.
Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle said Claypool “looks like a freakin’ machine” on the field.
But Claypool, 25, had a bad 10-game experience in Chicago, which basically traded a firstround pick to acquire him from Pittsburgh. He totaled 18 receptions for 191 yards and one touchdown.
Claypool’s poor experience with the Bears came roughly one year after he was dealt to Chicago from Pittsburgh in a trade-deadline deal.
Now Claypool is perceived as a possible bad apple, a guy who needs to have a good showing or his NFL reputation will be trashed and his opportunities might fade away.
That’s why he’s on the NFL Redemption Tour.
Will it work?
It’s tough to say if it’ll work, but the Dolphins have a good locker room. As I’ve said before, they have a low knucklehead factor, which is a good thing. There’s a lot of grown men in that locker room that should be able to keep Claypool straight. It’s worked so far for fellow wide receiver Robbie Chosen.
Claypool spoke to the Dolphins media for the first time Wednesday in the locker room. He said he has a plan for rebuilding his reputation.
“Just be the same person I’ve been in terms of being a teammate,” he said. “I know I’m a good teammate. And don’t try to do anything extra, try to do too much to try to prove that, just be myself and I’m excited with being around a new group of guys and showing them what I can do.”
Folks in Chicago might express doubt about that plan.
Claypool reportedly committed a cardinal football sin in Chicago. He apparently didn’t go all-out in the opener against Green Bay on running plays where he was supposed to serve as a blocker.
He reportedly apologized to teammates for that, but in the days leading up to the Denver game in Week 4 he complained about how he was being used by coaches. Shortly afterward was asked to stop attending practices and games. He was a healthy scratch his last two games with the Bears.
Claypool said some of his problems in Chicago stemmed from frustration from losing. He said now that he’s got a fresh start with a winning team, those frustrations should subside.
The Dolphins recently lost wide receivers River Cracraft (shoulder) and Erik Ezukanma (neck) to injuries. But coach Mike McDaniel said that’s not necessarily why they traded for Claypool.
“Sometimes, things come across your radar that you weren’t even looking for,” McDaniel said, “but when you assess it, it falls under the category of: This has a chance to make us better; then you jump on that.”
The Dolphins acquired Claypool and a 2025 seventh-round pick in exchange for a sixthround pick, a relatively low price — a price that shows how far Claypool has fallen.
Claypool, a 2020 secondround pick by Pittsburgh out of Notre Dame, was crazy good as a rookie with 62 receptions for 873 yards and nine touchdowns. He followed that with 59 receptions for 860 yards and two touchdowns.
In 2022, his production fell to 32 receptions for 311 yards and one touchdown in eight games.
In November 2022, Claypool was dealt to Chicago in exchange for the 32nd pick, which turned out to be a first-rounder because Miami lost its first-round pick that year in the Tom Brady scandal. Claypool posted 140 yards on 14 receptions and no touchdowns in seven games for the Bears.
This season he had four receptions for 51 yards and one touchdown in three games.
There’s talk the Dolphins could try Claypool at tight end. CBS Sports forwarded that theory.
But at the portion of Wednesday’s practice that the media was allowed to watch, Claypool seemed to spend a good amount of time talking to wide receivers coach Wes Welker and none talking to tight ends coach Jon Embree. That might have been by design.
Claypool was asked Wednesday about his blocking skills.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s really fun for me and trying to polish that every day and become a better blocker, especially on the interior and going against bigger guys like D-ends (defensive ends) and linebackers and trying to make the most out of those opportunities.”
Claypool was asked how long it would be before he’s ready to play.
“There’s a lot of motion, shifts; I’ve been doing a lot of studying and I don’t think it’ll be too long,” he said. “It is a complex playbook, but I feel pretty good especially after the first day of practice.”
The NFL Redemption Tour is in full swing, and it’s working for Apple and Wynn.
We’ll see if it works similarly for Claypool.