Ja’Marr Chase has watched the Bengals lose a lot of games while scoring a lot of points in recent years, not even making the playoffs. Once on the cusp of a Super Bowl victory, he now sees a team in need of help. And the area in which they need the help is obvious enough—obvious enough that he didn’t say it directly.
Speaking recently to Russell Heltman and Sports Illustrated, Chase answered some Bengals questions among other topics. Asked about his expectations for free agency this year, particularly on defense, he gave an answer that apparently did the rounds.
“Yeah. I mean, everybody pretty much knows what we need. I’ve said it out in the media”, Ja’Marr Chase said about what the Bengals need. “All I gotta do is sit back and watch. I can’t control that, so all I gotta do is control my production. I mean, at the end of the day, I’m just stating my opinion on what I think we need. So, you know, I sit back, let the organization do what they do, and I just gotta let my play do the rest”.
Over the past two seasons, the Bengals have lost nine games while scoring 24-plus points on offense. That includes seven games in which they scored 30 or more points but still lost the game. Cincinnati has, at its best, one of the most high-powered offenses in the league. But without a defense to match, there is little Ja’Marr Chase and company can do.
During the 2024 season, Chase won the receiving “Triple Crown” by leading the league in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. The Bengals barely managed a 9-8 record and missed the playoffs. This past year, he still put up big numbers, though not at the same scale. He finished with 125 catches for 1,412 yards and 8 touchdowns. It didn’t help that they missed Joe Burrow for a good portion of the season, even if Joe Flacco put up some points.
“Everybody has an opinion at the end of the day, and an opinion sometimes just is a right to be heard”, Chase said when asked about people saying the Bengals are wasting the best years of their careers. “But I can’t judge people on what they feel. I know all I can do is control what I can control, and that’s my play. And what my play does is only how far I can lead the team to success or not”.
The fifth-overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft by the Bengals, Ja’Marr Chase has been consistently productive. They had great success early in his career, but they have missed the playoffs three years in a row now. A lot of that has to do with the fact that their defense fell apart.
The Bengals are the only team in the division that didn’t change head coaches this offseason. Not only that, they have made little if any changes. DC Al Golden is still here, even after the Bengals ranked 30th in points allowed and 31th in yards. But will throwing money at the problem be enough?
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