Getty Images Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have continued their attack on the Cleveland Browns following a 48-37 playoff loss last Sunday, with rookie wide receiver Chase Claypool coming after the team’s AFC North rival for being “super classless.”
It’s the second time this week that Claypool has thrown shade the Browns way, following up his earlier comments saying Cleveland was going to “get clapped” by the Chiefs this week.
Claypool did an interview with DAZN Canada trying to explain himself in a little more detail on Thursday.
“Not that I’m praying on them getting beat really bad, but someone had asked me for a score prediction and that was just kind of a way of me saying I think the Browns are going to beat the Browns,” Claypool said. ”If the Browns had won with more class, then I wouldn’t have been so salty about it, but them mocking JuJu [Smith-Schuster] during the game and after the game just didn’t sit right with me.
🗣 “If the Browns had won with more class, then I wouldn’t have been so salty.”
@ChaseClaypool explains all the back and forth from the past week.
“They were just super classless, you know against JuJu, towards JuJu what they were saying on the field towards the end of the game, so I’m not going to have respect for a team that doesn’t have respect for us.”
Browns Ready to Move on From Steelers
Claypool might have a point. The Browns relentlessly trolled Smith-Schuster after the game, but it’d be hard to say he didn’t deserve it after giving the Brown something to rally around.
“I think they’re still the same Browns teams I play every year,” Smith-Schuster said prior to the game. “I think they’re nameless gray faces. They have a couple good players on their team, but at the end of the day, I don’t know. The Browns is the Browns.”
The Browns had their fun, but after the historic win they’re ready to move on to the next task at hand — Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
“I have nothing to say about that,” Browns linebacker Sione Takitaki told reporters when asked about Claypool’s latest comments. “I feel like the game’s over. We’re not playing those guys. We want to lock in on Kansas. But obviously he’s a great player. A great player, a good kid. But, yeah, we’re locked in for Kansas. So hearing all that, we’re way past that.”
Baker Mayfield OK With Chiefs ‘Confident’ Trash Talk
The smack talk from Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins started before the final seconds had even ticked off the clock last week.
Watkins was asked about the Browns and if they would be tough competition, responding, “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield said he didn’t have a problem with the confident statement from this week’s opponent.
“I have no problem with it to be honest with you because if you do not have confidence, then you are not going to have success,” Mayfield told reporters. “Those guys have been doing it together for a few years now. They have a ton of confidence in each other. People get mad when you put it out there as your quote-unquote ‘bulletin board material,’ but I do not have a problem with it. It comes with the nature of this game that you have to be confident and you have to know and believe in yourself.”
Cleveland running back Kareem Hunt had a slightly firmer answer on the situation.
“We will just see them Sunday. We will let the play do the talking,” Hunt told reporters. “There is nothing else to be said. If he believes that, we will see what he thinks after the game.”
READ NEXT: Odell Beckham Makes Strong Statement on Browns’ Future