Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is doing his best to make sure he continues to make an impact on the big stage after a blockbuster debut NFL season. 

Ja’Marr Chase had more or less the best season that you could ask for from a rookie. After being taken with the #5 pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2021 NFL Draft, he quickly and emphatically announced himself on the NFL stage with a remarkable rookie season.

Numbers wise he put up a season that a league-veteran would be happy with, grabbing 81 receptions which turned into 1,455 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season, before turning around and having 368 yards and a touchdown in the postseason.

It was no surprise then to see him walk away with the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award as well as the Pepsi Rookie of the Year award, being named to the Pro-Bowl and earning 2nd-Team All-Pro honours. The only thing that was missing in 2021 was a Super Bowl title, but given how impressive he and the Bengals were in 2021, you wouldn’t be surprised if they find themselves contending for silverware at some point in the future.

Looking to run it back

After the 2021 season, the Bengals are looking very much like a competitive force in the league, a far cry from what they were for a long time before that. Their last playoff win had come back in the 1990 season, and they had made seven trips to the playoffs under former head coach Marvin Lewis without picking up a win, including five seasons in a row between 2011-2015.

Now under the leadership of Zac Taylor as head coach, and with Joe Burrow steering the ship as the quarterback, they look like a team who could well be contending near the top of the AFC for some time to come, especially when you consider the additions they made this offseason such as La'el Collins and Alex Cappa to help protect Burrow. 

But it might well be that the more important pieces of the Bengals puzzle are already on the roster, and Chase is doing his best to prove that he’s still as crucial as anyone the team brought in.

Making even more of an impact

With preseason really heating up as the majority of teams get ready for their opening game in the coming days, now is the time for players to be as close to 100% and in football shape as they can be, both in their fitness and in what they do with the ball.

And in footage posted by ESPN’s Ben Baby, Chase proved that he is in pretty good shape right now, as he hauled in an incredible one-handed catch along the sidelines, and managed to keep his feet in bounds despite some very tight coverage from Eli Apple:

Now we just wait and see if he can pull it off in a game, but at least we’ve seen what he has in his back pocket for when he needs it.