Ja’Marr Chase will NOT go on injured reserve

UPDATE

The Cincinnati Bengals will not play wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase on injured reserve, according to head coach Zac Taylor, who also confirmed Trey Hendrickson will play vs. the Cleveland Browns.

The Bengals have yet to give a timetable on Chase’s recovery. Based on the fact he won’t go on IR, this means the initial 4-6 timeframe that was reported could end up being more toward four weeks.

We can only hope.

When news broke that Ja’Marr Chase would be out 4-6 weeks with a hip injury, the belief was the Cincinnati Bengals would eventually place him on injured reserve.

However, if Chase were to return within four weeks, it makes sense to keep him off IR since the Bengals have two games coming up, followed by a bye week, then Week 11 rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Placing Chase on IR means he’d have to miss four games, so he’d also be out for Week 12 vs. the Tennessee Titans.

As it turns out, the Bengals are now planning to keep Chase off of IR, according to NFL reporter Jordan Schultz, who adds that the injury is a hairline hip fracture and a torn labrum.

While that sounds like a bad injury, it appears Chase has a real chance of making it back to the field in just four weeks if the Bengals really are keeping him off IR.

For what it’s worth, when asked about Chase’s status Friday, head coach Zac Taylor stayed relatively mum, as captured by Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Charlie Goldsmith.

“He (Chase) has a hip injury,” Taylor stated. “He will miss some time, and he will make a full recovery. So right now, that’s the information we have. We have a couple more days this week to make decisions on IR and things like that.”

For now, I’d still expect Chase to miss 4+ games and be pleasantly surprised if he doesn’t. This just sounds like too serious of an injury to risk becoming one that requires major surgery and potentially compromise his availability for part of the 2023 season.