The Miami Dolphins are fully embracing their new acquisition, Chase Claypool, with open arms.
In fact, his new teammate Tyreek Hill had some kind words and a positive analogy for Claypool ... I think?
"What's crazy is, man, he looks like a vending machine out there, man, when he's running," Hill said. "Very fast. Very fluid in his routes. He's definitely gonna be a huge addition to this team. Whether it's blocking, whether it's receiving the ball, whether it's whatever this team needs him to do."
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Chicago sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
That's new. Never heard a comparison quite like that one. I suppose he means Claypool's supersized 6-foot-4 and 238-pound frame emulates that of a vending machine.
But, hilariously, Twitter didn't see it that way.
Bears News
Claypool had a rough go with the Bears. And that might even be an understatement to his short-lived tenure in Chicago.
On paper, he caught 18 passes for 191 yards and one touchdown over 10 games. Box scores and stat lines usually don't tell the full story for players. But this one pretty much covers it.
It seems Claypool's ego and steadfast belief in his lackluster abilities kept him from his success with the Bears.
He got into training camp scraps with Tyrique Stevenson, he threw fits on the sideline -- forcing Justin Fields to calm him down --- and the team had trouble convincing him to buy into their message, sources told NBC Sports Chicago's Josh Schrock.
That boiled down into a disaster.
Claypool shook his head and said "No" when asked if the Bears were using him to his best ability on offense. He followed that up with a lengthy quote with underlying tones of dismay with his situation in Chicago.
“I think rehoning what I want to do really well in, and that’s just the things that I can control like the effort on plays and finishing blocks," Claypool said Friday at Halas Hall. "Those are things I can control and things I’ve been making sure to just master these few weeks. Those are things I can control. The other stuff I can’t worry about. Just got to be at the right place at the right time, and hopefully, that falls into place.
“Sometimes the things around you either elevate you or you have to adapt to allow you to elevate with them,” Claypool later said. “So I’ve just been adapting to the new system and my new role in the system and trying to make the most out of it.”
For that and other reasons, the Bears asked him not to attend the team's Week 4 game against the Denver Broncos after making him a healthy inactive. They followed that up by announcing he wouldn't be in the building for the week leading up to their Thursday night contest against the Washington Commanders, which he wasn't active for, either.
Finally, the Bears traded him to the Dolphins packaged with a seventh-round pick in 2025 for a 2025 sixth-rounder.
So far so good in Miami, or at least, according to Hill.
"I feel like Chase Claypool gets a bad rap for probably not being a team guy," Hill said. "But from what I've seen he's been a heckuva teammate. He's even offered to wash my car. How about that?"