Bears’ Chase Claypool Sends Message After Brief PUP Stint

Bears Chase Claypool

In a speedy turnaround, Chicago Bears wide receiver Chase Claypool spent just over 24 hours on the PUP list. He sent a message via Twitter following news that he would be coming right back off the list. It’s great timing with training camp opening in less than one day.

“Mobbing on the low,” Claypool tweeted on July 24 just as news of his removal from the Active/PUP list began to circulate on social media.

Chase Claypool Back Off PUP List as Bears Add Former Dolphins WR

Bears Healthy to Start Camp

Claypool’s return leaves the Bears with only two players – fellow wide receiver Darnell Mooney and linebacker Jack Sanborn – on the injury report. Both players were listed as questionable on ESPN’s injury report for the Bears. But both have long declared themselves 100% ready to go for the upcoming season.

Chicago will enter training camp fully healthy and with several spots up for grabs.

Claypool’s spot might not be as up for grabs as some others on the roster. But he will have to adjust to a more crowded pecking order of trustworthy targets. Mooney and trade acquisition D.J. Moore are ahead of him, and Equanimeous St. Brown is trusted by the coaches.

He was also already going to have to contend with tight end Robert Tonyan who himself is built more like a big wide receiver than a true tight end.

But the Bears made the wide receiver room a bit more crowded too.

Bears Add Former Dolphins Draft Pick to Suddenly Crowded WR Room

The Bears added former Miami Dolphins seventh-round (No. 237 overall, 2017) wideout, Isaiah Ford, even before activating Claypool. Ford, 27, is listed at 6-foot-2. He spent four seasons with the Dolphins who traded him to the New England Patriots in 2020 amid COVID absences for the latter.

New England waived him just over one month later. He re-signed with Miami that December, repeating the latter part of that process multiple times.

This past season he signed with the Indianapolis Colts but was cut during training camp. Ford caught 12 of 17 targets for 161 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 2021. He has 63 grabs for 681 yards and those two scores for his career.

It’s unlikely Ford comes in and displaces anyone from the aforementioned group.

But he could make things interesting for the likes of St. Brown. Or, even more likely, Dante Pettis at the bottom of the depth chart. It’s most likely that he is another body at a time when injuries can pop up at any time and teams tend to handle them with extreme caution. Last season the Bears lost trade acquisition N’Keal Harry early in camp and he never gained any traction.

Bears Adding Every Thing But That One Thing

All of the buzz since the draft has been about how the Bears need to add an EDGE rusher, how they know they need to add one, and how they plan to do so. So far, they’ve added Ford and have been linked to former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Arthur Maulet.

The pool of free agents isn’t getting any better and the trade market has been slow to develop leaving the spotlight on the players in the room.

After an active offseason – one that saw them add three defensive tackles in the draft and one in free agency to help sure up the league’s worst run defense – EDGE rusher is an easy thing to point out as a spot they might need to do more at. That is if players like free agent signee DeMarcus Walker or 2022 fifth-round pick Domonique Robinson don’t flash early in camp.