"He had me high on his draft board, and he was excited he got the chance to get me."
That's what Mike Tomlin told Chase Claypool, the Steelers' top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, after he was selected 49th overall last night. And that's per the recollection of Claypool himself in speaking with us Pittsburgh media types via conference call shortly thereafter.
He might be right, too, about the board ranking. Neither Tomlin nor Kevin Colbert is prone to PR-ing and, besides, it's hardly implausible that they'd have been bona fide smitten with a 6-foot-4, 238-pound wide receiver out of Notre Dame who can fly from the goal line to Touchdown Jesus faster than you can say 'Megatron.'
That's the common comparison, by the way. Not in the complete sense, of course. There'll only be one Calvin Johnson, and Claypool's currently nothing more than a 49th overall pick. But when Claypool was flooring NFL eyes at the Scouting Combine a couple months back, putting up maybe the most striking position-specific performance of anyone, he was achieving metrics that no big wide receiver had known since ... actual bleeping Megatron.
And leading into that, he'd come off a rocket-launched senior season in South Bend, even with the Irish not having much else offensively: 66 catches, 1,033 yards, 13 touchdowns in 13 games. But place production on one scale, physical potential on the other, and almost every football evaluator will lean hard toward the latter.
Certainly the Steelers' evaluators will. They've forever chased the clay in the equation.
Randy Fichtner, Claypool's new offensive coordinator, didn't await a question before rattling off, "He's one of those rare types of combination of size and speed," and "You know, his wingspan is greater than 80," and "He’s got big hands," and "I don’t remember seeing him not win a one-on-one, contested-type play," to my favorite: "I was really excited when he ran a sub-4.4 at the Combine, and I don’t get excited because, boy, you just assume you’re probably not going to get to him at 49."
Colbert sounded much the same, sprinkling in some intangibles: "Sharp young man. Great size. Great speed. He’s got great competitiveness. We really got close to him down at the Senior Bowl, and the work he did on the special teams really stood out in practices. Of course, we knew about his receiving abilities, but when you saw him up close working the way he did in the special teams parts of practices, it really showed the competitiveness this young man has.”
The Senior Bowl was Jan. 25 in Mobile, Ala.
Not surprisingly, Tomlin, who's forever viewed special teams as a graduation level, brought up that same scenario: "I thought we were really impressed, in Chase’s case, by his physicality. It really captured our attention, like Kevin said, regardless of what drill he was in down in Mobile, whether it was a special-teams drill or whether it was a wide receiver-DB blocking drill. As I started to study his tape after that exposure, it was consistent on his tape, as well. There’s a physicality in his play that was really attractive outside the things that were mentioned.”
Translation: He hit things, he appeared to enjoy it and, thus, along with whatever else he brings, he looks like a Steeler.
Which now, of course, he is.
So hey, go ahead and get excited. Anyone capable of contributing to this collection of collegiate highlights is worth it ...
The newest member of the wide receiver room! @ChaseClaypool pic.twitter.com/6kF4xq15LH
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) April 25, 2020
The call that made @ChaseClaypool a Pittsburgh Steeler! ?#SteelersDraft pic.twitter.com/sdEYkPPBda
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) April 25, 2020
