The Bengals plan to get Ja'Marr Chase more involved in the offense

Ja’Marr Chase readily volunteered that he’s had to improve his disposition when it came to his quieter games as a professional.

Consider Chase’s two-catch, 12-yard outing from the Cincinnati Bengals‘ 2026 season-opening victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 13. Take those numbers and apply them to Chase a few years ago, and you’d have a discontented player.

“Not happy. Wouldn’t have been happy,” Chase said. “The old me would have been in my head and not more mentally into the game.”

In 2026, Chase is 26 years old and in his prime as a six-year NFL veteran. He’s a Bengals captain, too, and that’s a role he values. Given all of that, two catches for 12 yards in the Bengals’ 33-27 win against the Buccaneers produced a far different reaction.

“I think I held my attitude accountable. I didn’t flip. I didn’t do the extra stuff. I was a pro,” Chase said. “I just want to win. As an athlete, as a competitor, the best thing I want to do is help my team provide and win. The best thing I can do to help my team win, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Parallel to Chase’s maturation, there’s still a widely-held acknowledgement within the Bengals organization that Chase needs to see more of the ball. It’s a positive development that Chase can be content with smaller personal output, but his coaches said they aren’t going to be content with that.

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Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher’s reaction to Chase’ two-catch game against Tampa Bay was as blunt as it gets.

“We didn’t throw him the ball enough. It’s pretty simple,” Pitcher said. “We’ve got to throw him the ball more. He’s the best receiver in the world.”

When the Bengals on Sept. 13 beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chase’s stats were limited to the two catches for 12 yards, plus four targets, it was an afterthought to some fans. Maybe it was a novel concept to others.

On a day when other players provided the scoring plays and big catches, the Bengals still won even without their star receiver making major contributions. The reality is that means the Bengals have more reliable weapons than opponents can contend with.

Then again, maybe Chase can do things to make the margin of victory more comfortable. Maybe the Bengals aren’t grinding out each play on the final drive of the Buccaneers game to bleed out the clock and prevent the visitors from touching the ball again.

Against Tampa Bay, Chase said the Buccaneers did some things to prevent the ball from coming his way. Head coach Zac Taylor also conceded Chase can be an effective decoy, although that’s not the team’s preferred method of deploying him.

The bottom line is two catches for 12 yards simply isn’t good enough.

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“There’s really no excuse for that, to be quite honest,” Taylor said. “I’ve got to continue to find ways because every time he gets the ball, whether it is behind the line of scrimmage, down the field, 10 yards deep, he impacts the game. You can’t have an excuse for why as a play-caller I don’t get him more touches.”

Fortunately, Chase has history of bouncing back strongly from some of the quieter games of his career.

On Dec. 19, 2021, Chase had one catch for 3 yards against the Denver Broncos. That game remains the least-productive of his NFL career in terms of both catches and receiving yards, but he posted 125 and 266 receiving yards in the next two games.

On Nov. 16, 2023, Chase was held to two catches for 12 yards against the Baltimore Ravens. He posted 230 combined receiving yards over the next two weeks.

It’s hard to keep Chase down. His history says so, and so do his coaches and teammates.

“It’s less of a balance and more of a ‘we’ve got to get him the ball,'” quarterback Joe Burrow said. “That sentiment was echoed from a lot of different fronts after the game. … That’ll certainly be an emphasis.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The Bengals plan to get Ja’Marr Chase more involved in the offense