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Kyler Gordon Has Bears Fans Worried He's Taking Chase Claypool Path

Once a popular defensive back for his flair on the field, Kyler Gordon has some fans thinking they are seeing a repeat of one past player disaster.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kyler Gordon takes the field prior to the NFC wild-card game with Green Bay wearing the Spider-Man mask.
Kyler Gordon takes the field prior to the NFC wild-card game with Green Bay wearing the Spider-Man mask. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

The question Bears fans seem to be asking about Kyler Gordon now is a different than in the past, and suggests his status has changed from fan favorite to someone with a possible image issue.

In fact, the name of "Chase Claypool" is being invoked after a video of Gordon was put out via Instagram doing individual rehab work. At about the same time, video of his status as a fashionista circulated on the internet.

Claypool, of course, wound up off the Bears a year after being traded to the team. He had an offseason when he spent time modeling in Europe and incurred the wrath of fans after he had thrown a helmet in a blowout loss against the Lions. Then the next season he said he had a hamstring injury and was eventually told not to come to Halas Hall to practice or to Soldier Field for a game, before he was sent packing in a trade with Miami.

The difference here is the Bears know Gordon was injured. The question now is whether he still is, or is at least healthy enough to be participating in training camp and practice. GM Ryan Poles isn't sure of anything regarding Gordon, it seems.

He had what was reported to be a calf injury. The rehab work being done in his video that was released would be consistent with the type of work done to strengthen lower calf and/or an Achilles. The Bears never reported the injury as an Achilles issue but in the offseason they are not required to submit injury reports.

The Kyler Gordon image

Regardless of his health, releasing a video of himself doing rehab now is about the worst thing he could do. When fans get fed up with an unexplained injury situation, they don't want to see undefined glimpses of a player working on his own. What they want is to see him working with the team or at least hear in a press conference or podcast from the player about what the issue is.

Gordon always fashioned himself as a superhero, wearing a Spider-Man mask at times and doing flips during player introduction, with spidey-like poses. Now there is this emphasis in the videos on social media regarding his interest in fashion.

Considering the path Claypool went, it's questionable whether the ill-advised workout tape is worse than the fashionista tapes. Those suggest he has other things on his mind than football, which doesn't please fans or even the Bears.

At this point, Gordon needs a brand new day. He needs to be entirely focused on rehab at Halas Hall and returning to the field.

The high cost to the Bears

Poles expressed frustration this week, pointing out an athlete getting past an injury needs to be willing to work through the pain associated with rehab.

It was the first real glimpese at what's going on here. Poles even said he wasn't sure when or even if Gordon would play again as the team put him on the physically unable to perform list.

It's most likely the Bears wouldn't be trading Gordon at this point because of salary cap concerns, just like they wouldn't be cutting him.

His departure in a trade would result in a loss of $22.5 million in cap space as a dead-cap hit, and immediately they would lose $9.59 million more against their actual cap, according to Overthecap.com.

If they traded him, it would be a much more favorable situation. They would get $10.4 million in cap savings with only a $2.5 million loss of cap space through dead-cap hit. However, finding a team willing to trade for a player with a mysterious injury and rehab situation is like finding someone who likes giving away their paycheck every week.

It's simply not happening.

Even next year, there are problems with getting rid of his contract and it would only improve slightly after June 1. Prior to June 1, they would lose $1.7 million in cap space and also suffer a $15 million dead-cap hit. After June 1 they would gain $800,000 but still lose $12.5 million in dead cap.

The trading situation after June 1 of 2027 is easily the best route because they'd save $10.8 million in cap space and would only eat $2.5 million in dead-cap space.

However, at this point expecting Gordon to be a player who appeals to other teams would require he finish up this year strong on the field as a model player, and not simply as a model.

So many of past failed situations can be traced back to GM Ryan Poles and the failure to do due diligence. It happened with Claypool as his moody and even silly behavior on the field foreshadowed what happened to him after Pittsburgh traded him to the Bears.

In this case, there was no way to know Gordon's situation would take this turn.

The future

The only way the situation improves for him is if he heals fully and commits to getting back on the field.

The Bears have already been forced to make plans to move forward without him. Using rookie Malik Muhammad at slot cornerback is a bit of stretch because of his inexperience. Expecting newly acquired Clark Phillips III to take over that spot is also a reach because he hasn't played it.

The player most familiar with slot cornerback on the roster is Cam Lewis, and they've had him playing safety as injury replacement for Coby Bryant. However, there are now two other options for safety that could let the Bears move Lewis back to where he has played best, and that's in the slot.

They used Xavier Woods with the first team defense at times in Wednesday's practice instead of Lewis. No one should be shocked if Hicks or Woods winds up in the starting safety spot come opening day against Carolina, with Lewis finally getting moved into the nickel role.

The slot cornerback spot has always been an elusive situation for the Bears. When they finally developed one they liked in Bryce Callahan during Vic Fangio's era, he left in free agency for Denver. Then they brought in Buster Skrine and after flopping with the Bears he was arrested in two fraud schemes, one in Canada and the other in the U.S.A.

DENNIS ALLEN CALLED THIS DEFENSIVE TACKLE EVEN BETTER THAN JORDAN VAN DEN BERG

Gordon was supposed to be their answer to all of this at $13.5 million a year for three years. It looks now like Muhammad or some other player in the future will need to be their solution.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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