While Ja’Marr Chase did a little something here and there, by and large, he held in during the Cincinnati Bengals’ training camp. He traveled with the team for a road game, but he didn’t play, and barely practiced. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor got ahead of himself this week, though, when Chase practiced a bit, predicting his return. Boy, did he regret that.
You see, Ja’Marr Chase decided not to practice yesterday, which forced Taylor to eat his words. “It’s been good to get him back in the mix the last couple of days”, he said, via the team’s website. “He’s looked great. Same Ja’Marr I’m used to. The plan will be to continue to practice with him”.
Taylor said that about Chase on Tuesday—and then he had to take a very different tone on Wednesday. “I probably put my foot in my mouth speaking too quickly”, he admitted at one point, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer on X.
Chase’s absence from practice forced Taylor to retreat to his familiar territory of calling him “day to day”. At this point, he is not even ready to commit to declaring that he will be on the field for the season opener, so yeah, clearly things are going well.
A former top-five draft pick, Ja’Marr Chase is in his fourth NFL season, but under contract through 2025. Next year is his fifth-year option season, but he is eligible for an extension now—and he clearly wants one. Very few non-quarterback first-round picks receive early extensions, but Chase has a better case than most.
Since entering the league, Chase has made the Pro Bowl in each of his three seasons. He has 268 receptions for 3,717 yards and 29 touchdowns in 45 games. There is no question that he is one of the premier receiving talents in the NFL, and he wants the Bengals to pay him like it.
The Bengals are notoriously one of the NFL’s most frugal franchises. They only recently started throwing money around in free agency—likely because of the cap floor. No longer can owners hoard money—they are required to spend a minimum amount. But Mike Brown obviously doesn’t feel like he has to pay Chase now—he already said as much.
It seems more and more, players are attempting to assert power by withholding services. They know they are in a profession with a short shelf life, and they want to maximize their earnings potential. Now, sometimes they screw themselves over following bad advice, or just being dumb.
Is Ja’Marr Chase being dumb with the Bengals? Probably not—ultimately, I don’t think anything comes of this. The Bengals know they have to pay him, but they want to do it next year. I suppose if T.J. Watt can wait for his fifth-year option year, perhaps Chase can, too. But Watt didn’t hold in during his fourth season.
