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The Pittsburgh Steelers were rumored to be shopping wide receiver Chase Claypool ahead of the NFL's November 1st trade deadline, and the team finally struck a deal with the Chicago Bears on Tuesday.
Justin Fields gets a new weapon in an offense that desperately needed one and the Steelers gained a valuable draft pick and shed a receiver from its talented skill group.
As always, fantasy managers want to know how this affects Claypool's fantasy outlook and if he can be started right away, so we'll dive into it all after a wild day of trades.
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Why Was Chase Claypool Traded To Chicago?
The Chicago Bears failed to add playmakers for Fields during the 2022 offseason, so they finally made a splash for immediate help at the wide receiver position. Claypool has every chance to take the No. 1 WR role in this shallow group of wideouts, so it was a mutually beneficial trade for all sides involved. Some would say the Bears overpaid by sending their 2023 second-round pick, but ultimately time will tell whether or not the trade was worth the valuable draft capital.
On the Steelers side of things, Goerge Pickens, Dionte Johnson, and Pat Freiermuth form a strong pass-catching group, and with Claypool regressing since his rookie season, they obviously felt the move was the right choice.
Should I Start Chase Claypool in Week 9 Fantasy Football?
Claypool will be much higher on the pecking order in Chicago than he was in Pittsburgh, but the Bears will continue to be a low-volume passing offense when games are close. Fields has flashed his top-10 NFL draft pick upside over the last month of the season, but he's still on pace to pass for fewer than 3,000 yards.
The offense as a whole gets better with Claypool coming to town, but expectations for his fantasy production should remain realistic. Even if he commands a 20-percent target share, which would be a career-high -- that would only amount to just around four targets per game given Fields' current average passing attempts per game. Darnell Mooney might not be a household name, but he's not going to be a pushover in the target competition.
Claypool is worth rostering for his unknown upside, but unless he scores a ton of touchdowns, he won't be close to a weekly WR2. For Week 9, he should be benched. If he has a solid game, that'll certainly affect his outlook moving forward.
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