CINCINNATI – Sunday will be just the second home game Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase has missed in his five-year career.
And the sixth overall.
The NFL suspended Chase one game for spitting on Pittsburgh Steelers safety Jalen Ramsey in Sunday’s 34-12 loss, so whomever plays quarterback for the Bengals on Sunday will be looking for new options to split the 14.4 targets Chase is averaging since Joe Flacco arrived.
“It’s going to be a whole host of guys that we will afford opportunity,” offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “That was a message to them this morning when we talked to the team. When you don’t have Ja’Marr available, everybody has eyes in their head. They can see how big of a piece he is to what we try to do week in and week out.
“We can look at that and feel sorry for ourselves, or there should be seven or eight guys walking around this building with some energy today knowing those opportunities have got to go somewhere,” he added.
Those guys include receivers Andrei Iosivas, Mitchell Tinsley and Charlie Jones and tight end Mike Gesicki, who returned to practice today after missing the last four games while he was on Injured Reserve with a pectoral injury.
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Iosivas already is averaging 49 snaps (79 percent) per game, so it’s likely to be Gesicki, Tinsley or Jones who see the biggest boost in playing time.
There is a chance the Bengals could elevate Kendric Pryor from the practice squad as well.
Wide receiver Jermaine Burton, who has yet to be active for a game this season and has missed practices on and off again the last few weeks with what the team is calling an illness, is not expected to be in the mix.
Gesicki would be the most likely to see a surge in snaps and targets.
He signed a three-year, $24 million extension in the offseason but was only averaging 25 snaps and three targets per game.
Gesicki wasn’t willing to proclaim himself ready to play Sunday, but he did say he feels great a little more than a month after he thought he might need season-ending surgery.
“I thought my season was over,” he said. “To go out there and practice and catch a couple balls and be out there was fun in itself. There' still work to be done and healing to be done, but it's been good.”
Though there is work to be done, as Gesicki said, the coaches are not ruling him out and sounded optimistic about his chances of playing Sunday.
“To lose a guy like Ja’Marr and add Mike helps ease the pain a little bit,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “Happy to have him.”
Pitcher said he expects Gesicki’s return to give the offense a significant boost.
“We went into this year with high hopes for Mike,” he said. “We still have high hopes for Mike. We have a lot of football left to play. Excited about his ability to return. I know he’s been working really hard.
“We saw what Mike could do in this offense, especially in the latter part of last season,” he added. “I know he is chomping at the bit to contribute.”
Jones has played just four offensive snaps this season and 74 for his career.
He may get a few more reps Sunday, but it’s likely he will out-snap Tinsley, or possibly even Pryor.
The last time Chase missed a game was Week 16 in 2023 for a shoulder injury.
That was Jake Browning’s fifth start after Joe Burrow suffered a season-ending wrist injury.
In that game, Iosivas had eight targets, which remains his career high. Tee Higgins also had eight targets.
You can expect Flacco to lean on Higgins and Iosivas primarily against the Patriots, but it will be interesting to see how much playing time Tinsley gets, regardless of whether Gesicki plays.
Tinsley has played just 89 snaps this year. He had a season-high 17 against Chicago in the game before the bye but just seven in Sunday’s loss at Pittsburgh.
A surprise star in the preseason with six catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns, Tinsley has just three catches for 49 yards in the regular season.
A few weeks ago when Iosivas was struggling with drops, it looked as though Tinsley might start stealing some of his reps. But the Bengals stuck with Iosivas, even though Tinsley had done everything right in practice to earn more playing time.
“He's self-made. Absolutely nothing was handed to him,” Pitcher said. “And he just continues to earn more and more opportunities. That's a great example of you can look at this as a burden or an opportunity – where we find ourselves this weekend. I think for a guy like Mitch, it can be an opportunity.”
The Bengals are 3-2 in five games without Chase.
During the four games Chase missed with a hip injury in 2022, Higgins had 36 targets.
The others who had at least 10 were:
Tyler Boyd, 22
Hayden Hust, 21
Joe Mixon, 17
Samaje Perine, 16
Trenton Irwin, 12
Trent Taylor, 11
Chase will only be out one game this time, so the target share could lean toward whomever has the hot hand and most favorable matchup against a New England defense that ranks seventh against the pass (244.1 yards per game).
Unlike 2022 when Burrow had a lot of reps banked with the other players, Flacco is still new to the team and hasn’t been taking limited practices reps since injury his shoulder 23 days ago against the Jets.
“Obviously, as you're game planning and you have Ja’Marr Chase, you're gonna create opportunities for him,” Flacco said. “But as the quarterback, it wasn't like I was looking his way over something else, just to do it, just because it was Ja’Marr.
“I think as we get into the game and we learn how these guys are gonna play us, then you might have to make some adjustments, just like you do every week.”