The Chicago Bears are making wide receiver Chase Claypool inactive for Week 4 against the Denver Broncos, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. Claypool has struggled with the Bears since his trade from the Pittsburgh Steelers last season, but this decision to make him inactive comes on the heels of some critical comments made by the wideout this week.

With Claypool a healthy scratch, Chicago will make fellow wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown active. St. Brown hasn't been active yet this season after catching 21 passes for 323 yards and a touchdown in 16 games for the Bears last season. While the wideout isn't a prolific pass catcher, he is a strong run-blocking presence on the outside.

Chase Claypool's struggles

Bears, Chase Claypool

Chicago traded a second-round pick to Pittsburgh last season for Claypool, with that pick ultimately becoming the No. 32 pick (Joey Porter Jr.) in the 2023 NFL Draft. The former Notre Dame star caught just 14 passes for 140 yards and zero touchdowns in seven games last season.

The hope was with a full offseason and training camp with the Bears, Claypool would break out in 2023. That hasn't happened so far. He has just four catches for 51 yards and a touchdown as Justin Fields and the offense has struggled mightily. His blocking misadventures and lack of effort in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers went viral.

Chase Claypool's critical comments

While Claypool hasn't helped himself with his performance, he believes he's not being put in the best position to succeed. The Bears wideout made this known earlier this week.

Claypool was pressed on the matter and asked if the situation was “not ideal” for him.

“No, I wouldn't say that,” Claypool said, per ESPN's Courtney Cronin. “I think every situation has the ability to be ideal and I think we're just working towards that. I'm not going to say that. I wouldn't say it's not an ideal place for me. Obviously there's other places — you can say, ‘Oh, I want to be on the best offense with the highest passing yards' but that doesn't happen in football. You just have to make due with what you got.”

Claypool was then asked how the Bears could do a better job putting him in a position to succeed.

“You know, I'll let them decide that,” Claypool said. “I'm not going to give any pointers. That's their job to decide and l'll just do what they tell me to do.”

Well, Chicago has made a decision, and that decision is to bench Chase Claypool. The wideout would have surely liked an opportunity to play against a similarly downtrodden Broncos team, which just gave up 70 points to the Miami Dolphins, but he won't get that chance. We'll see if he gets out of the doghouse anytime soon.