The Chicago Bears and the Miami Dolphins made a deal. Fresh off their first win of the season over the Washington Commanders on Thursday Night Football, the now 1-4 Bears decided to end the Chase Claypool experiment after 10 winless games. He came over to Chicago last season at the trade deadline for what became the No. 32 overall pick in a lopsided deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Claypool's NFL career out of Notre Dame has been head-scratching to say the very least. He was immensely talented playing for Brian Kelly's Fighting Irish. Along with former teammate twice-over in tight end Cole Kmet, Claypool jumped off the screen while catching passes in college from Ian Book. Surely, he was going to have success at the next level, but Mapletron has been a huge underachiever.
Frankly, getting traded over to Chicago, a franchise where receivers go to die, did not set him up for success. Then again, he was drafted out of Notre Dame by the one franchise that does receivers better than anyone else in Pittsburgh, and they traded him while still very much on his rookie deal. Maybe Miami can get the most out of his undeniable talent. Perhaps the Bears can turn the page?
So with that in mind, there are winners and losers to be had from this Friday morning trade of sorts.
Chase Claypool traded from Bears to Dolphins: Winners and Losers
Winner: Miami Dolphins
The big winner here is definitely Miami. The Dolphins only had to give up an inconsequential day-three pick for a former day-two talent playing with a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder. The best part of this for the Dolphins is this is a low-risk, high-reward sort of addition. If Claypool balls out for them coming over from Chicago, then it may go a long way toward the Dolphins winning a playoff game.
See, what I like about this trade the most for the Dolphins is Claypool is not expected to be a leader on the offensive side of the ball. He can slide in, learn the ropes and hopefully, make big plays for them down the stretch. You better believe that offensive wunderkind head coach Mike McDaniel has a few ideas in mind for how to use his newly acquired wide receiver. Oh, he is cooking up something.
It would not be the least bit shocking if Claypool makes a game-changing play for Miami in November.
Loser: Chicago Bears
While I guess Chicagoland will somehow find a way to rationalize this transaction, your beloved football team keeps on making huge mistakes like GOB Bluth has taken up residence at Halas Hall. No, this is not a trick, nor is it an illusion. This is what a no-good, very-bad football team looks like. Chicago basically paid a gross premium for a devalued asset and then sold it off at rock bottom.
This is how the sons and daughters of billionaires go broke within years of their patriarch's untimely passing. Although I commend Chicago for beating Washington in Washington on the day that Dick Butkus left us, I still have a hard time seeing this year's Bears team eclipsing last year's grand win total of three this time around. As long as the Carolina Panthers keep sucking, then y'all can maybe fix this.
People are not laughing at the joke you made at the lunch table, Bears. People are laughing at you.
Winner: Tua Tagovailoa
Although Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel could be seen as a big winner in this deal, the trade is all about getting NFL MVP candidate quarterback Tua Tagovailoa yet another weapon to spread the ball around to. When he has time to throw, he will deliver a beautiful left-handed spiral to wherever it needs to go on the gridiron. He may be slender, but he was an immense talent while with Alabama.
What I like about adding Claypool into the mix from Tagovailoa's perspective is that he has yet another option to distribute the ball to outside of Tyreek Hill, Devon Achane and his former and current Crimson Tide teammate Jaylen Waddle. It is going to be so hard to defend this Miami offense. We have to wonder how many yards 1984 Dan Marino would have thrown for in this one variation of it.
Unless Claypool proves unreliable once again, it is hard to see this trade making Tagovailoa worse off.
Loser: Ryan Poles
I have said this before and I will say this again. I am completely out on the Bears as a competitive NFL franchise for as long as Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles remain employed by the organization. Surely, there are other people to point the finger at, but the new team president just about ruined college football for us and the newish general manager seems to have no remote clue what he is doing at all.
Poles basically took an asset that once belonged to Pittsburgh down 25 percent, put him on his crapstically constructed Bears roster he assembled, knocked the same asset down another 25 percent and then sold it to Miami pennies on the dollar, while exchanging basically penny stocks. Losing over 50 percent value on a trade you made not even a year ago is how you lose your job.
I would not let Poles manage my fantasy football league, let alone my enemy's 401k or an NFL team.
Winner: Chase Claypool
Look at Chase Claypool getting out of Dodge! You better believe he is a winner in this, as he escapes wide receiver Siberia to a place known for four verts and South Floridian sunshine. While there are plenty of reasons why the Dolphins have not won a playoff game since the Bill Clinton administration was winding down, they have not had a head coach like Mike McDaniel since Uncle Dave Wannstedt.
Although the Steelers have done a good job historically at drafting wide receivers, it is a defensive-minded culture at its core. When the Dolphins are at their best, they play with a pizzaz that makes their opposition feel uncomfortable, whether that be during the glory days of Don Shula or when Dan Marino was making cameos on Ace Ventura, Little Nicky or another film he did not ask for points on...
The Dolphins did not flub this one up. Send it in, as this trade could help them win a rare playoff game.
Loser: Matt Eberflus
While some people may argue that Justin Fields is a loser in all this, he will come out of this Bears mess just fine, one way or another. Either he keeps playing like he did on Thursday night, or he will become some other quarterback-desperate franchise's Caleb Williams that they have at home. However, the same principle cannot be applied to the Bears' struggling head coach Matt Eberflus.
Although congratulations are in order for Eberflus getting his first Bears victory since Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X, keep in mind that coaches like Jim Tomsula and Jeff Saturday also won games as NFL head coaches. Eberflus is far better at his job than them, but his team is going nowhere. How can he be expected to win when Poles keeps losing his lunch money to NFL bullies?
The Bears should be thankful to have at least one win before getting stuffed into a locker yet again.
