The Bengals’ passing game this season consists of Ja’Marr Chase, and not much else.
Chase has been the Bengals’ No. 1 receiver since he was drafted, but in the past two years, Joe Burrow also spread the ball around to both Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins, who also made major contributions.
This year is different: Chase has 556 receiving yards, more than Boyd (204) and Higgins (149) combined. Chase has 45 percent of the Bengals’ receiving yards, the highest percentage of his team’s receiving yards of any player in the NFL. The Bengals just aren’t getting much of anything from any receiver other than Chase.
Boyd says he’s not discouraged by that, even if he knows he could step up.
“I feel pretty good about [this year], but it could be way better,” Boyd said, via Cincinnati.com. “If you’ve seen this offense go, it’s not where we would like. Everybody can agree with that. I’m not satisfied for sure. We got to keep pushing.”
When the Bengals beat the Seahawks despite scoring just three points in the second half, Boyd caught a touchdown pass in the first quarter but managed just one catch for seven yards in the second half. He said he can’t complain about his usage in that game.
“The way the second half was going, nothing was clicking,” Boyd said. “No one was getting anything going. There was no rhythm. I can’t complain about receptions or throws because we couldn’t stay on the field long enough to get the ball rolling.”
The Bengals need to get something clicking with their other receivers. It can’t just be Chase and not much else.