The Steelers have a new weapon to add to their arsenal this year. Here’s why wide receiver coach, Ike Hilliard, thinks Chase Claypool is going to be ‘really good.’
In such an unusual year, it’s hard to have high expectations for Pittsburgh Steelers rookies in 2020. Rookie minicamps were canceled this year and the much-needed preseason games for young players were taken away due to COVID-19 scares. In addition, padded practices are limited, and there has never been less time for rookies to prepare for an NFL season.
But despite all of this, Steelers new wide receiver coach, Ike Hilliard, has very high hopes for Chase Claypool as early as his rookie season. Here’s some of what Hilliard had to say, according to an interview video released by the Pittsburgh Steelers:
[If] Chase does what we expect him to do and that’s make plays early and often, Chase is going to play a lot. He’s going to be really good, and that’s what we expect from a lot of those guys… You can’t teach 6’4, 238, 4.41 electric time. That’s just something that doesn’t fall off of a tree. You get a chance to harness that kind of talent and kind of shape it and mold it into something that can be really really special. I think that as an organization, we all kind of chomped at the bit. And he can do so much for the football team and effect the football team in a positive manner outside of playing receiver. We love that. We’re gonna love his physicality, his playmaking ability and his feet.”
Despite working with Claypool for just a small amount of time, Hilliard seems to be sold on the rookie receiver as a player. Though his statement does leave some contingency upon whether or not Chase “makes plays early and often,” saying that “he’s going to be really good” is quite the statement about a player that doesn’t even have a preseason game or padded practice under his belt.
