Wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said earlier this offseason that he hopes to rewrite the Bengals’ receiving record book over the course of his career and he reiterated that this week while adding that he’d “rather win.”
Bids on both fronts will be aided by Chase having as many tools in his box as possible when he takes the field. The wideout appears to recognize that need because he said he’s focused on adding wrinkles to his game this offseason.
Chase said he’s doing that by building off of the chemistry he already has built over two seasons with quarterback Joe Burrow.
“I’m trying to be creative on routes because you already have the timing. That’s what I’m trying to do now. Be a lot more creative in my routes,” Chase said, via the team’s website. “Now that I know the timing and how long I need to take. That’s what being creative is about. Not just being one-dimensional on a piece-of-paper route. You don’t want that.”
Bengals wide receivers coach Troy Walters pointed to Marvin Harrison as a player who “could manipulate DBs, corners, get them to turn by running the routes a little differently with different technique and burst” over the course of a game. If Chase can do the same, the Bengals will be even tougher to stop in 2023.
