Chris Mueller: Claypool's self-belief is fine; results would be better

There was nothing inherently wrong with the fundamental thrust of Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool’s comments on a recent “I Am Athlete” podcast appearance.

Sitting with Brandon Marshall, Pacman Jones and LeSean McCoy, Claypool expressed plenty of confidence in his ability to be a great wide receiver in the NFL.

Of particular note was Claypool’s assessment of his own abilities, and where they’d place him in the league’s receiver hierarchy.

"My second year, I was a better football player than I was my first year. The plays just didn't work out. Some of the plays didn't go my way, I didn't make some plays,” Claypool said. “As a football player, knowing what to do, knowing where to be, I was better. So, I'm going to be better this year. I know for a fact, I'm not like the rest of the guys in the NFL. I know I'm a top five receiver. I know I'm a top three receiver.”

I have no issue with a guy having confidence. It’s a prerequisite for success in professional football. It is more or less accepted as fact that the best quarterbacks are confident bordering on cocky, and that confidence is frequently praised.

Therefore, I’m not going to sit here and give Claypool a hard time for believing in himself. What else is he supposed to do?

Having said that, I’ll believe that he’s going to be great when I see it, and not a moment sooner. That quote up there? The whole, “Some of the plays didn’t go my way, I didn’t make some plays” part glosses over a second season that looked statistically identical to the first, with one big exception – seven fewer touchdowns – and a major lowlight in the form of an extremely ill-advised first-down celebration in the waning seconds of a failed comeback try against the Vikings.

Mike Tomlin is like every other coach in the NFL in that he stresses the importance of a big jump from year one to year two in a player’s career. That’s not to say that there can’t be and aren’t improvements at other times, just that the biggest one often happens after the player has had a full year of the NFL experience and can more adequately prepare themselves for their second season. It just makes basic sense.

Where did Claypool improve in year two? The stats tell us that he didn’t. More troublingly, the eye test tells us that nothing looked different. He ran predominantly the same limited route tree – go route, slant route, with an occasional bubble screen and jet sweep thrown in – that he had as a rookie. There wasn’t any appreciable change or improvement in how he played his position, and the celebration against Minnesota was as much of a rookie mistake as you could possibly expect a player to make.

New wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson praised Claypool recently, saying, “He's coming early for meetings. He's staying late after practice. He comes in and meets with me after practice. I see him outside on the field when practice is over with, just showing them how to do things, showing them different routes and releases, those types of things.”

That’s nice, but talk is cheap, particularly this time of year. The results are what matters, and the results Claypool produced last year weren’t nearly good enough. He might think he’s a top-three receiver in the league, but he would do well to make sure he’s a top-three receiver on his own team, because that’s not a given.

Claypool has all the physical gifts in the world; height, strength, speed and vertical leap. He’s close to what you’d come up with if you were trying to build the perfect NFL receiver in a lab. That’s what makes the lack of results so frustrating. There’s no doubt that Claypool’s belief that he’s one of the best in the league at his position stems from the fact that his natural gifts to play the position are staggering.

Too often though, those gifts don’t translate to big plays. He doesn’t stay on his feet for 50-50 balls. He doesn’t win many of those battles. When he does catch a ball in space and gets up to full speed, it’s scary. Problem is, that doesn’t happen very often. To watch Claypool, particularly in his second season, was to watch a player that looked the part but rarely played the part.

Maybe he’ll prove everyone wrong and become an upper-echelon wide receiver this year. Maybe he’ll add polish and nuance to his game. Maybe a new quarterback and a more expanded offense will help him. Maybe he really did take some of last year’s lowlights to heart, and is dead-set on making sure they never happen again.

For now, all we have is what we’ve seen over two seasons. That, and Claypool’s extreme confidence that this year, he’s going to take the league by storm. There’s nothing wrong with him feeling that way about his potential; he more or less has to have that belief.

That doesn’t mean any of us have to share it, though.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: Claypool's self-belief is fine; results would be better