While Bengals head coach Zac Taylor did not yet rule Ja’Marr Chase out for Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh, the receiver is reportedly set to miss time with a separated shoulder.
Cincinnati has been plagued by injuries for much of the season, most notably with quarterback Joe Burrow out for the season with a wrist injury. But offensive coordinator Brian Callahan still anticipates that the unit will be effective, in part because the club has dealt with so many injuries.
“Don’t have much choice if he’s out and we’ve had played plenty of games without Ja’Marr,” Callahan said, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “We played plenty of games without Tee [Higgins], we’ve got plenty of other guys that have to fill in and that’s just the nature of the whole league right now.
“I think you look around, there’s a lot of teams that are dealing with the same stuff and guys got to keep stepping up and raising their level of play and keep trying to find ways to win.”
Nevertheless, Chase is hard to replace. He’s caught a career-high 93 passes this season for 1,156 yards with seven touchdowns.