"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
... as is the anticipation of Ben Roethlisberger, who's always preferred big-bodied targets, sizing up an already bigger group that's now added Eric Ebron, Claypool and a bevy of heavier formations he and Fichtner can apply in the red zone.
"Well, you know, the size is great from the height standpoint, the wingspan, all of that's wonderful if it’s used right," Fichtner acknowledged when Ben's preference came up. "It’s really exciting for a quarterback because you’ve got this catch radius and these ball placements that don’t always have to be perfect. I think it’s going to be an advantage to him, as well as us."
Remember, too, that this front office is pretty good at finding front-line wide receivers, including those who arrive in need of further polish. And this one's coming with more tools than maybe any in recent years.
It's a fun pick. It might be a fine pick.
• And yet ... I feel compelled to add, albeit in a separate bullet to create some distance from being a downer, that the 2020 Steelers didn't get helped much on this day. Which can and arguably should be dispiriting in its own way, given that Ben's 38.
But what a weird draft it's already been for the local franchise, huh?
A class of wide receivers that was supposed to run 10 deep in elite talents saw the Steelers select the 11th.
A class of running backs that was supposed to see LSU's Clyde Edwards-Helaire, a perfect-looking fit for the Pittsburgh offense, instead become the first player at his position taken with the last pick of the first, to the Chiefs. And when Georgia's D'Andre Swift, the consensus top back, and Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor, the most accomplished back, were lost early in the second round, the Steelers were left looking at Florida State's Cam Akers -- who I'd have loved -- and Ohio State's J.K. Dobbins ... and passed on both in favor of Claypool.
That won't sit well with a lot of the Nation. And I get that. I'm not one to emphasize positional priorities in any draft, but the Steelers' situation is specifically attached to Ben, and pretending otherwise is going all ostrich on the process.
Did Colbert and Tomlin lose out on a player they hoped to have?
I'd bet on it, if only because it's unthinkable that they'd have felt supremely confident about who'd go with the first 48 picks.
But did they really have the rug taken out late?
Bear in mind, they're also in the market for safety depth, and four of those, remarkably went in the second round before their turn. It felt like a running joke to anyone familiar with the Steelers' needs.
Did that matter?
“We never go into it looking for a position," Colbert said in elaborating on the Claypool pick. "We have ideas where strengths are. We have ideas where wants are, and if they match up at a certain point, great. In the case of a wide receiver, we were excited that that player was available to us in particular — not that position. Chase Claypool the player was available to us for all the reasons we stated: He’s big. He’s fast. He’s strong. He was physical. He can make the contested catch. And again, when a player like that was available, it was easy. But we didn’t go in looking for any particular position.”
Truth is, we'll never know.
• What'd be the point in drafting a running back now?
There are four picks remaining, and there are immediate depth areas to address.
Besides, Benny Snell was a fourth-rounder in 2019, 120th overall, and the Steelers' next pick today is another fourth-rounder, 124th overall. No back they'd get today will be more ready to help this fall than Snell, who was so active at Kentucky he showed up revved up for game duty.
I'm still not interested in trading for Leonard Fournette for all the same reasons: $4.16 million cap hit, fifth-year option due in early May, and there's no point conceding even the mid-round 2021 draft pick the Jaguars are seeking when experienced free agents remain on the market.
Put it another way: The Jaguars are practically shoving Fournette's face in front of all 31 GMs these past couple days, and not one has bitten. Probably a reason for that.
Either pay a couple million to LeSean McCoy -- he's 32, but just did fairly well in backup duty for a championship team -- or someone similar, or commit fully to Snell as at least a 1B to James Conner's 1A, and get on with it. But don't force a draft pick today. Ship's sailed.
• Chris Carter happens to concur:
• Haven't even mentioned the third-rounder yet: Alex Highsmith is an edge rusher who once was a walk-on at UNC-Charlotte, and he's that much more of a project than Claypool will be this fall.
He can replace -- with ease, at the risk of being mean -- Anthony Chickillo as a rotating backup behind T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree, though I'd still like to see Ola Adeniyi and Tuzar Skipper have dibs on that role. But mostly, Highsmith will be a special teams guy at the outset and, to the credit of Tomlin and Colbert, both made that clear not only to us but also to the individuals themselves in their respective calls.
As for Highsmith's future and adding an edge rusher, Tomlin had the line of the night: “We now have three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks in the AFC North, man, and we’re going to employ people to hunt those guys. Hopefully he’ll aid us in that regard.”
• That said, Tomlin closing this conversation with Claypool with a simple, 'My man ...' was pretty cool, too:
The call that made @ChaseClaypool a Pittsburgh Steeler! 📞#SteelersDraft pic.twitter.com/sdEYkPPBda
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) April 25, 2020
• Is Highsmith a sign the Steelers won't or can't extend Dupree for the long term?
He just signed his franchise-tag offer this week, but any extension would supersede that.
“We’ve always said it will always be our intention to try to get Bud signed to a long-term deal so he can finish his career here," Colbert said. "We have a very dynamic duo with Bud and T.J., and we'd like to see that end together.”
• Remember when a handful of folks fussed over whether or not people would find it appropriate to conduct the NFL Draft amid the coronavirus outbreak?
Well, the people spoke ... no, shouted ... with the TV ratings for the first round Thursday soaring to a record 15.6 million viewers, an incredible increase of 37 percent from a year ago. In the peak 15-minute segment, 8:45-9 p.m., there were 19.6 million tuned in to one of the show's various networks and streaming services.
Funny, not a peep of criticism now.
• To repeat from Day 1, everything about the presentation -- beginning with the league, extending to ESPN and NFL Network -- has been first-class. Just the right touch of football, humanity and, of course, charity, with $8 million being raised in the first 24 hours toward coronavirus-based causes.
As I'd predicted a couple weeks ago, it's yet another cementing of the status of our new national pastime.
• Bengals right back on the clock at noon. Here we go, as they say, one more time.
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