Bengals Beat: ‘Ask Me At The End of Year’ Ja’Marr Chase Holds Off On Greatness of Roster, Sees The Right Kind of Fight In Bengals To Start Camp, Days 2, 3 Takeaways

CINCINNATI — Ja’Marr Chase knows it’s way too early to make predictions.

After all the re-tooling of the defense and the drafting of offensive linemen, there is the belief that this is the best roster in the Joe Burrow era.

“Ask me at the end of the year,” Chase said when asked.

What he does believe is that this Bengals team has the right approach from the start of camp. Yes, he acknowledged the scrap with DJ Turner and Jalen Davis on Day 1, when he got a hold of Turner’s loose helmet and ripped it off and tossed it. He got into it with Jalen Davis and threw punches.

“It’s just really football at the end of the day,” Chase said. “It happens. Got to bounce back. It’s competitiveness. Everybody just getting each other better at the end of the day. So got to do a better job of just getting back to practice, not getting distracted.”

One thing is for sure, Chase respects Davis at inside corner and believes he can compete for the starting slot corner job.

“JD’s always been a good player, savvy, I call him. I think he’s a savvy vet,” Chase said. “He plays a little aggressive to say he’s that small, but he plays very aggressive. He’s smart. He knows tendencies really well. I think that’s what really gives him an opportunity to be a starter.

Chase said the intensity is what he wants to see. Barrett Carter echoed that on Friday from the other side of the ball.

“That’s what I want. Exactly what I want,” Chase said.

Did Chase enjoy the first couple of days of intensity?

“Hell yeah, love it,” Chase said. “I play with a lot of feistiness under me. You know what I’m saying? I think me just bringing it to practice, doing it with the guys at practice. I think that’s gonna help those guys get better because you never know who does that in the game with them, and it might help them guys practice a little harder. Might help me practice a little harder. You never know what it does.”

Chase and the Bengals are putting it out there from the start of camp that they’re not messing around this year. Chase understands this team has a special makeup and talent. Now is the time to put it all together into a cohesive product that can hit the ground running on Sept. 13 against Tampa Bay.

Chase, like his quarterback Joe Burrow, knows there’s no room or reason for excuses now after an offseason of re-tooling by the front office and ownership, investing $300 million in the remake of the defense. For the next three weeks, Chase is playing opposite of a defense that has Super Bowl winners in safety Bryan Cook and edge rusher Boye Mafe last year with Seattle.

“Honestly, I didn’t know we were going to get all that,” Chase told me. “I didn’t know that, but I love it. At the end of the day, I feel like that’s the front office showing that they want to help us win. They hear what we’re saying. They hear what we need, whether it’s coming from me, Joe or Tee, whoever it’s coming from, you know, they hear it, and at the end of the day, they’re trying to help us make an impact on this.”

He’s also getting to know the massive Dexter Lawrence II in the middle of the defensive line.

“Honestly, it’s really fun. Like yesterday, I heard Dex talk for the first time, and I heard he was a big trash talker,” Chase laughed. “So, I was excited when I heard it. Like that made me a little excited. So, I love it.”

The competition in camp should be fascinating to watch with Chase pushing the defense and the defense punching back, metaphorically speaking, of course. Chase famously said he didn’t know of then-rookie safety Bryan Cook in 2022.

“It wasn’t that much. It was just blown out of proportion,” Chase said of the talk leading into Cincinnati’s 27-24 win on Dec. 4, 2022. “I didn’t even really know who he was at the end of the day. I didn’t, and I think I said that in one of the interviews, and it was blown up. But I didn’t do research on Cook, so now I know who he is. I mean, it’s the NFL. It would happen eventually with somebody that I talk trash to on the internet. So I mean, it’ll happen eventually.

“Me and Cook, honestly, me and him just this is our first conversation,” Chase said. “I haven’t really talked to him much. No grudge against him. I just haven’t talked to him much, but I think it’d be fun. He knows my tendencies. He knows stuff from KC. I think it’d be good just for me to ask questions from him, pick his brain, see what he got going on. So at the end of the day, it’s all to make each other better.”

Chase and Cook will no doubt talk more on the field over the next three weeks.

“I’m not worried about what we do. I mean, you could do it to us, but do it during game-time the most,” Chase said.

Why do it to the defense in camp?

“Unity. It’s gonna bring unity to the defense,” Chase said. “They all play as one, and they already playing feisty,” Chase said. “I want them to be more feisty, so they can have each other’s back. So that’s what it’s about. More bonding with the team.”

Bengals Camp Day 3 Friday:
* Walkthrough with no helmets
* Practice lasted just under two hours
* Dexter Lawrence II had a veterans day off, not on the field
* TJ Slaton took his reps inside along Kris Jenkins while Jonathan Allen returned after not practicing Thursday and played outside on some runs, with Myles Murphy on the other side.
* Boye Mafe and Cashius Howell both took their reps at the hybrid LB spot, alternating playing the run and dropping
* Kick returners Charlie Jones and Samaje Perine took first reps. Tahj Brooks and Ke’Shawn Williams were second, followed by Mitchell Tinsley and Dohnte Meyers.
* “Back Together” Weekend planned for Saturday as camp reopens to fans, weather permitting.

Bengals Camp Day 2 Thursday:
* Bengals dodge a bit of a bullet on Shemar Stewart. Zac Taylor says he’s out “several weeks” with hyperextended left knee. Should be back “sooner than later” and “avoided major injury.”
* Stewart was back in the locker room with teammates Thursday, with a leg-length brace on his left leg.
* Erick All Jr. announced he’s “great” after surviving being hit by a three-wheel mini-truck on vacation in Greece. “It’s the first time I ever got pancaked. I’m usually the hammer… That did a lot of good things for (me) mentally. It was huge for my confidence.”
* Play of the day came as Barrett Carter blitzed up the middle on a Joe Burrow pass and Demetrius Knight Jr. dropped into coverage and picked off the Bengals QB.
* Right before interception, Carter blew up a pass play to Chase Brown by jumping up into Brown’s face.
* Joe Burrow opened 11s with a perfect sideline toss to Ja’Marr Chase, with Jordan Battle trailing
* On the next play Burrow found Andrei Iosivas with a nice toe-tap.
* Catch of the day came from Noah Thomas over DJ Ivey on a perfect pass from Joe Flacco. He high-pointed and then David Tyree’d it on his helmet as he was falling to ground.
* Kris Jenkins Jr. filled in at DT for Jonathan Allen, who did not dress but attended Thursday’s practice.
* Ced Johnson again filled in for Shemar Stewart on second unit defensive edge.
* Fast start for offense, defense with a late surge.
* Chase said there were words said again Thursday in practice but not involving him.