Chase Claypool- I know you want to talk about him

[H2o]

28 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

My view is he is a Jimmy Graham. A guy who is basically a wide receiver who plays down the seam. You can call it a split end or a move end or whatever you want but you are not really asking him to block beyond the odd bit of chipping, and you are not asking him to run those quick hitches or anything that requires those quick changes of direction. You are asking him to run downfield and attack the middle and then be a beast after the catch with his speed and size.

I understand your take, but I see a slightly faster Mike Evans 

Edited March 4, 2020 by H2o

[BillsFan17]

Claypool is not and will never be a TE. Even if they decided to label him as a TE, hell be a Big Slot. Which has been more and more of a trend in today's NFL.

 

That being said, I think Claypool may take a little time getting adjusted to getting a good release at the NFL level, but his abilities are off the charts.

[GunnerBill]

15 minutes ago, BillsFan17 said:

Claypool is not and will never be a TE. Even if they decided to label him as a TE, hell be a Big Slot. Which has been more and more of a trend in today's NFL.

 

That being said, I think Claypool may take a little time getting adjusted to getting a good release at the NFL level, but his abilities are off the charts.

 

Yes - that is what I mean. You can call him a TE but essentially it is a big slot who runs vertically down the middle of the field.

[GunnerBill]

35 minutes ago, H2o said:

I understand your take, but I see a slightly faster Mike Evans 

 

I think that might be a little homerism.  Mike Evans is an elite NFL player. Claypool is a long shot to get to that point.

[BarleyNY]

2 hours ago, H2o said:

He's a WR with flexibility to be moved around due to his size and strength. I've watched him for 4 years at Notre Dame, being the professed homer I am.  In those 4 years I watched him take a step forward every season. As a Freshman he got basically 0 playing time. As a Sophomore he struggled with some drops, but you also saw the big play potential and the outstanding body control. Junior season he started to really emerge as a weapon in the passing game and cleaned up the drops, even though he was 2nd fiddle to Boykin. His Senior year he was the leader of the pack and put up some big numbers even with Book's inconsistencies. A lot of the perceived "he lacks separation" is due to Ian Book and his ball placement at times. Claypool would have his man beat by a full step, which is probably 2 yards easily for him, and Book's pass would cause him to have to adjust. I would literally be screaming at the TV on some plays (usually 4 or 5 a game at least) due to the fact Claypool was wide open and Book either missed him on the throw, took off too early from the pocket without having his eyes down the field, or he just flat out never looked his way for whatever reason. He could have easily had another 400+ yards and 5 TD's this year. People see a big guy and immediately want to flip him to another position. These are his 1-on-1 Senior Bowl reps. There are a couple of sloppy runs, one looking like it was due to him getting tangled up with the DB, but he is a solid route runner for a guy his size, has some quick twitch to him, can get separation, has great hands, and you know he can go up to get the ball over anyone.  Some of the balls thrown his way were pretty crappy as well in the video, especially the ones where he's in the endzone. 

 

Thanks for posting that.  A few thoughts:

- he seems very capable as just a WR

- elite or even quality TEs are much more rare than WRs and if he can be the former then that’s a plus IMO

- he did very well with working the middle of the field

- he also seems very physical which would play well at TE where the refs often allow a lot more contact with defenders

- he could put a lot of pressure on defenses If he could flex between outside, slot and even in line (though I guess that could be done with him as a WR too)

 

I don’t want to get too caught up with nomenclature here.  Whether he’s called a WR or a TE, he looks like he can bring a lot flexibility and excitement to a team. 

[H2o]

53 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I think that might be a little homerism.  Mike Evans is an elite NFL player. Claypool is a long shot to get to that point.

Maybe a bit , but watch them both in college. Watch the body control, the difficult catches at times, the high-pointing when necessary, the way the both of them look running in the open field after the catch, it's quite similar. Say what you want about Manziel, but he's one of the best college QB's to play in the last 20 years and that was Mike Evans' QB @ A&M while Claypool had Brandon Wimbush and Ian Book. 

[GunnerBill]

32 minutes ago, H2o said:

Maybe a bit , but watch them both in college. Watch the body control, the difficult catches at times, the high-pointing when necessary, the way the both of them look running in the open field after the catch, it's quite similar. Say what you want about Manziel, but he's one of the best college QB's to play in the last 20 years and that was Mike Evans' QB @ A&M while Claypool had Brandon Wimbush and Ian Book. 

 

I still submit that the biggest single reason Jonny Manziel was ever even in the conversation as a first round pick was because he had Mike Evans. That debate raged on this board back in 2014.... did Evans make Manziel or did Manziel make Evans. I don't think I've ever been more right about anything in my life than I was on that debate...... oh except Nathan Peterman sucking that is.

[H2o]

20 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I still submit that the biggest single reason Jonny Manziel was ever even in the conversation as a first round pick was because he had Mike Evans. That debate raged on this board back in 2014.... did Evans make Manziel or did Manziel make Evans. I don't think I've ever been more right about anything in my life than I was on that debate...... oh except Nathan Peterman sucking that is.

You could make the same argument for Claypool making Book look mediocre even with all of the catches he made to bail him out on a weekly basis. Claypool accounted for 1/4 of Book's completions, over 1/3 of his yards, and over 1/3 of his TD's. Manziel was a completely different QB in college and his style fit that game. He threw some absolute dimes to Evans over his couple of years there, not taking anything away from Evans' ability of course. Watch the two highlight videos. I see tons of similarities between Claypool and Evans. The both naturally use their body the same to shield off defenders. Both are hands catchers. Eerily similar in what I see between the two. One thing, a huge difference you will notice, is that almost every single pass to Claypool 20 yards or more downfield he has to adjust to in some way, shape, or form. How many times did Manziel hit Evans in stride perfectly?  And, yes, you were ABSOLUTELY right about Peterman. 

 

[C.Biscuit97]

3 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I still submit that the biggest single reason Jonny Manziel was ever even in the conversation as a first round pick was because he had Mike Evans. That debate raged on this board back in 2014.... did Evans make Manziel or did Manziel make Evans. I don't think I've ever been more right about anything in my life than I was on that debate...... oh except Nathan Peterman sucking that is.

I have never been more than I was on Manziel.  He played in a system where every qb puts up sick numbers and would just run around behind 2 1st round OTs and throw jump balls to a top 5 6’5” nfl receiver.  I think his partying only mask the fact he was never going to be good enough. 

2 hours ago, H2o said:

You could make the same argument for Claypool making Book look mediocre even with all of the catches he made to bail him out on a weekly basis. Claypool accounted for 1/4 of Book's completions, over 1/3 of his yards, and over 1/3 of his TD's. Manziel was a completely different QB in college and his style fit that game. He threw some absolute dimes to Evans over his couple of years there, not taking anything away from Evans' ability of course. Watch the two highlight videos. I see tons of similarities between Claypool and Evans. The both naturally use their body the same to shield off defenders. Both are hands catchers. Eerily similar in what I see between the two. One thing, a huge difference you will notice, is that almost every single pass to Claypool 20 yards or more downfield he has to adjust to in some way, shape, or form. How many times did Manziel hit Evans in stride perfectly?  And, yes, you were ABSOLUTELY right about Peterman. 

 

I think Claypool is still fairly raw and got better every game.   He is legit and a perfect compliment to our offense. 

[BuffaloBob]

On 2/28/2020 at 12:14 PM, MAJBobby said:

Mims is going to be the never talked about in the first round that I truly believe since the Senior Bowl he has made the Most Money. 
 

before Senior bowl saw most people having him as a Day 3 pick. After Senior Bowl most had him in 2nd. After his workout don’t be surprised if he is taken in the first. He has made himself ALOT of money during this process. 

And he’s also a Senior with three full seasons as a starter. This brain trust likes seniors for their maturity and experience. 

[Maine-iac]

On 3/2/2020 at 7:48 AM, H2o said:

No offense, MVP or not, look at who his QB is and the breakdown of that QB's completions. Out of 265 completions, 125 of those were to TE's. Then you have 49 completions to RB's. That's 174 of his 265 completions. There were 91 spread around to the WR group with Marquise Brown getting 46 of those. He was the speed guy, a bona fide threat to take it to the house every time he touched the ball whom they schemed for. Then you have Snead who was Lamar's security blanket getting 31 receptions. Lamar only targeted Boykin 22 times and he turned that into 13 catches for 198 yards with 3 TD's. He had 1 drop in those targets with only 17 of them being considered catchable. That offense is not an offense that you can really judge WR's off of. We all knew what Brown was and that Roman would scheme for him. I don't know if Boykin will ever be used in Baltimore or be able to do as well as he would in say a GB, NO, Seattle, Houston, KC, or anywhere else that has a true passing QB. I'm not saying he would be a superstar, but he would likely have had more production as a rookie.  

 

Claypool on the other hand differs from Boykin in many ways. First off he weighs 18lbs more than Boykin, but is just as fast. Claypool is clearly a more physical WR if you compare the two in their time at Notre Dame. Claypool also has a bit more twitch to him than Boykin did and can beat DB's on inside slants with more consistency. Yes they both ran a 4.42 at the combine, but if you watch them both at ND Claypool is faster in pads than Boykin. Claypool also has better body control and awareness than Boykin, always being able to layout or twist his body for the ball while getting a foot in bounds to secure the catch. They are two completely different players outside of their height and 40 time. The comparison is lazy at best.  

LOL ............ you win.  You clearly need the win.  Made a lot of assumptions here about my comparison.  I'll start and end by saying I think Boykins might turn out to be a great receiver and let you figure out the rest (because I'm lazy).

[T master]

On 2/27/2020 at 7:39 PM, PIZ said:

I was thinking that he looked like Kelvin Benjamin, but KB ran a 4.61 40. I’m not sure what would be better.....a big fast guy like Claypool or a small super fast guy like Ruggs. 

 

If what the talk has been about the Bills needing a big bodied WR that can compliment the B&B express Claypool i hope is the guy ! They have a bunch of smaller guys including Mckenzie but if they had Claypool & Knox or if Croom shows he's worth keeping there is all the height they will need in their WR's not o mention Claypool's speed ! 

 

Dudes got great hands & could easily be the next Megatron .

Edited April 2, 2020 by T master

[QB Bills]

So intrigued by this guy. Never watched a minute of college football, but I think he's the guy to target in the draft. Chase is not a name that will fail (assuming you're a receiver).

[John from Riverside]

Jesus.....Claypool is a specimen

 

Wouldnt cry at all if we ended up with him

[C.Biscuit97]

15 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

Jesus.....Claypool is a specimen

 

Wouldnt cry at all if we ended up with him

It would be nice to cry because they actually got a player I wanted for once! (I wanted Oliver last year so that made me really happy!).  But I really want Claypool or Pittman. 

[H2o]

 

Here's a 20 minute breakdown Simms did on Claypool. Look at that 1.52 10yd split time. Hope he's there @ #54 and Beane pulls the trigger. Diggs and Brown on the outside, with Beasley and Claypool playing in the slot, then throw in Knox at TE? We'd be unstoppable. 

[T master]

This is now my favorite draft scenario, now that we no longer have a pick in the first round if Claypool is there at our second pick i think it's a no brainer we need his size in the WR room if not this year for the future put him with Knox, Diggs, Claypool, Duke (if they keep him around) in the end zone  !! 

 

We can still get a good RB in the 3rd .

 

https://billswire.usatoday.com/2020/03/31/espn-todd-mcshay-mock-draft-buffalo-bills-chase-claypool/ 

[OldTimer1960]

1 hour ago, T master said:

This is now my favorite draft scenario, now that we no longer have a pick in the first round if Claypool is there at our second pick i think it's a no brainer we need his size in the WR room if not this year for the future put him with Knox, Diggs, Claypool, Duke (if they keep him around) in the end zone  !! 

 

We can still get a good RB in the 3rd .

 

https://billswire.usatoday.com/2020/03/31/espn-todd-mcshay-mock-draft-buffalo-bills-chase-claypool/ 

I would rather have Michael Pittman, but really can’t see the Bills taking a WR in 2nd after trading their 1st for Diggs.

[transplantbillsfan]

Question:

 

Did Chase Claypool say he will play TE?

 

This is from The Athletic. He's ranked as the #2 TE

https://theathletic.com/1745820/2020/04/15/mcginns-nfl-draft-series-scouts-on-top-wide-receivers-and-tight-ends/

McGinn’s NFL Draft Series: Scouts on top wide receivers and tight ends

 

TIGHT ENDS

 

2. CHASE CLAYPOOL, Notre Dame (6-4, 238, 4.44, 1-2): Made 33 starts at WR over four seasons. Some teams are vociferous about him playing outside in the NFL. Others see him as a TE. “I think he’s big enough to be a tight end,” said one scout. “He’s every bit as big as Travis Kelce. He’s faster than Kelce. That’s who I saw.” His combine numbers were the best by a tight end. “I just don’t see the blocker at tight end,” a second scout said. “I don’t see how he holds up. People had the same conversation with Devin Funchess. You’re talking about the Jared Cook’s of the world. That’s just a different body type.” Finished with 150 catches for 2,159 (14.4) and 19 TDs. “The big ones that don’t make it, like Jonathan Baldwin, is because they’ve got a long ways to go because of (lack) of polish,” the second scout continued. “He’s not that far away. He’s fast, aggressive, has good hands. He was a dog on special teams. If you try to make him a multi-cut route runner, it’s going to be a problem. Let him be a big, fast, vertical, take-the-lid-off, contest-catch-winning guy. Mike Evans is a vertical route runner. I’m not calling this kid Mike Evans, but there are some comparable traits.” From Abbotsford, B.C., Claypool is the first Notre Dame signee from Canada since 1994. He posted a Wonderlic score of 27.

[Doc]

College WRs never make it in the NFL as TEs.