Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow voice support for Ja’Marr Chase

The Cincinnati Bengals haven’t seen the best outings on the field from their rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr chase. He has four drops in his last two preseason outings, including one today on a mere screen pass from Joe Burrow.

However, it seems No. 9 isn’t concerned about Chase’s issues going into Week 1 of the regular season.

Chase and Burrow have quite the history together. They spent two seasons at LSU and combined for a little over 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns. In fact, the last time Chase played in a live game before getting drafted by the Bengals was when the two won the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2019.

To further the point that those inside the building aren’t worried about Chase, head coach Zac Taylor noted he has seen what the rookie is capable of when fans haven’t been watching.

The elephant in the room is the fact Bengals fans just went through this with John Ross after he was selected with the No. 9 overall pick before becoming a shell of himself and struggled catching the ball. Fans are worried if this is going to be a repeat, and the added crowd that criticized taking Chase over Penei Sewell has been plenty vocal during these times (despite Sewell also struggling mightily to acclimate to the NFL).

It isn’t ideal that Chase has been having issues. However, the guys who are closest to Chase aren’t worried and that should be a telling sign. The more live reps Chase gets in this offense the more he will get used to the speed of the game again. He also will continue to learn how these plays are supposed to work, which means he won’t need to think about what he is doing as often and focus on just making plays.

Chase has plenty of room to grow from what we’ve seen this preseason. That is just a fact. We as fans probably shouldn’t be so quick to doubt that he will catch up though and find his groove on this team.