Chase
Claypool.
Chase
Claypool.
Notre Dame· 6'4"· 4.42s 40
"A 6-4, 238-pound receiver who ran 4.42 and spent three years on special teams before a 1,037-yard senior season made him the rare size-speed outlier teams argue about rather than agree on."Pre-draft read
Big-bodied perimeter receiver who lines up outside, in the slot and on the line of scrimmage as a blocker, and who was Notre Dame's every-down special-teams gunner before he was their number one target. Wins with mass and long speed: he stacks corners on go routes, boxes them out on back-shoulder throws and turns catches into collisions.
The secondary trait is what he does with the ball after the catch, running through arm tackles like a tight end. The route tree is short on nuance, and the separation comes from size and tempo rather than footwork at the top. Against the run he is a willing, physical blocker. The signature is the vertical shot where he outruns the coverage and then outmuscles the safety at the catch point.
Vertical play-action offense that isolates a big X or Z receiver on the boundary
Year 1 as a red-zone and vertical-shot specialist in three-receiver sets while the route tree expands; ceiling is a 1,000-yard boundary starter who is a matchup problem inside the 20.
A timing-and-spacing offense built on option routes and leverage reads, where his lack of separation at the stem leaves the quarterback throwing into coverage.
His value is highest when a coordinator will deliberately scheme contested throws to him rather than asking him to win on rhythm concepts.
Notre Dame WR Chase Claypool 2019 Highlights
The 1,037-yard senior season that turned him into a top-50 pick, with the vertical and back-shoulder wins.
Every Chase Claypool Touchdown At Notre Dame
All 19 college touchdowns, a compact look at the red-zone and catch-point profile.
Chase Claypool || Career Steelers Highlights
Pittsburgh tenure, including the record-setting rookie touchdown year.
An Abbotsford, British Columbia native who arrived at Notre Dame as a raw athlete, spent three seasons as a complementary target and special-teams standout, and then produced one of the best receiving seasons in recent program history as a senior. The physical profile is the headline: 6-4 and 238 pounds with a 4.42 forty at the Combine, a package almost nobody at his size can match.
The production is late but real. Five catches as a freshman, 29 as a sophomore, 50 for 639 yards as a junior, then 66 for 1,037 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior, finishing with 150 receptions for 2,159 yards and 19 scores across 49 games. He also led the Irish in special-teams tackles as a true freshman, which is the trait teams cite when they talk about his competitiveness. The flags are the single big season, the blunt route tree and questions about whether he is a receiver or a moveable tight end.
The board had him anywhere from late first to third round because the evaluation split on that very question. Pittsburgh took him at 49 as a Z receiver, betting the size-speed combination would translate immediately into contested-catch and red-zone production.
- 01
Rare size-speed package
6-4 and 238 pounds with a 4.42 forty, a combination that lets him run past corners and then win over them at the catch point.
- 02
Contested-catch production
Thirteen touchdowns as a senior came largely on back-shoulder and red-zone throws where he simply boxed the defender out.
- 03
Yards after catch as a big man
Runs through arm tackles and drags defenders, turning short throws into first downs the way a tight end would.
- 04
Special-teams pedigree
Led Notre Dame in special-teams tackles as a true freshman, evidence of the effort and physicality behind the athletic profile.
- 05
Blocking willingness
Attacks defensive backs in the run game and holds blocks on the perimeter, which keeps him on the field in heavy personnel.
- 01
Undeveloped route tree
Separation comes from size and tempo, not footwork at the stem, so NFL corners with technique can stay attached through breaks.
- 02
One-year production sample
Three modest seasons preceded the breakout, which leaves a thin track record supporting a top-50 receiver projection.
- 03
Positional ambiguity
Some rooms graded him as a moveable tight end, meaning his value swings hard depending on how a coordinator deploys him.
- 04
Concentration lapses
Drops appear on routine targets over the middle, at odds with the highlight-reel catches he makes in traffic downfield.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.42sp50
- Vertical
- 40.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 126inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 19repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Notre Dame | 11 | 5 | 81 | 0 |
| 2017 | Notre Dame | 12 | 29 | 402 | 2 |
| 2018 | Notre Dame | 13 | 50 | 639 | 4 |
| 2019 | Notre Dame | 13 | 66 | 1037 | 13 |
| Career | — | 49 | 150 | 2159 | 19 |
Sports-Reference totals include bowl games; season sums match the career line exactly (150 receptions, 2,159 yards, 19 touchdowns in 49 games). He also carried the ball three times for six yards across his career and led the Irish in special-teams tackles as a true freshman.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A big-bodied downfield winner with one or two strong seasons whose production depends on quarterback and role.
The outcome where the size becomes a permanent mismatch and the volume never dips.
A tweener whose lack of route detail turns him into a rotational red-zone piece who changes teams often.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The rookie year was everything the bet promised: 62 catches for 873 yards, nine receiving touchdowns and two more rushing, the most touchdowns by a rookie in Steelers history. Year two brought 59 catches for 860 yards but only two scores as Pittsburgh's offense cratered around him, and the efficiency slid with it. Chicago traded a second-round pick for him midway through 2022, and the return was 14 catches in seven games. In 2023 he caught four passes in three Bears games before a public dispute over his role ended the stint; Miami claimed him, and he finished with four catches in nine games. He has not appeared in a regular-season game since, spending time on the Bills roster without stats, leaving his career at 58 games, 175 receptions, 2,261 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The retrospective is unkind but clear. The traits were exactly as advertised, and for one season they produced a genuine weapon. What never arrived was the route craft that would have let him win when the scheme did not hand him a favorable matchup, and the second-contract profile evaporated the moment his quarterback play and his touch count declined together. Pick 49 was defensible and the trade Chicago made for him was not; the player himself was a one-year hit who never found a second act.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.