The Lead: Ja'Marr Chase

What separates the great players from the very good players? I saw it the other day on a lonely field in the Midwest under a summer afternoon broiler, 92 degrees with 85 percent humidity, when the 2021 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year was the only football player at work.

Ja’Marr Chase was the last of 90 players on the field for the AFC champion Bengals on this dog-day Cincinnati afternoon, prepping to catch footballs shot out of a Jugs machine at short range at 40 mph. Chase started catching them with running back Chris Evans providing some distracting defense to make the catches tougher, but then Evans had to hustle inside for a meeting. So now, other than one other Bengal signing autographs 100 yards away for a few fans, and two equipment guys, the place was Bengal-free. Players and coaches were inside the air-conditioned locker room and offices.

Chase now had one problem: He needed a DB to play defense. He saw the stoop-shouldered boss of Bengals.com, Geoff Hobson, waiting for him to finish the drill so he could ask him a few questions. Hobson asked if Chase needed him to play defense.

“If you want to,” Chase said.

In his last football game, the Super Bowl, Chase was guarded by all-world corner Jalen Ramsey.

Now he’d be guarded by a gray-haired 63-year-old scribe who last played football in the Carter administration.

The object of this drill was not only for Chase to work on catching line-drive throws, but to have someone distract him with a tug on the jersey or wave a white Gatorade towel in his face. Hobson grabbed a towel and prepared to distract Chase from catching fastballs from the machine, just eight yards away.

“Wave it in front of my eyes,” Chase told Hobson.

“THWAP!” came the footballs, one after another, shot out of the machine, a Bengals aide handing them to equipment manager Adam Knollman, who fed them into the machine, each ball speeding 24 feet to the orange-gloved Chase. With Hobson fluttering the towel as each line drive zipped toward them, Chase softly hand-caught them, no body involved. Try that sometime.

The oversized rolling garbage can was empty. I called from the sideline: “How many in there?”

Equipment guy: “Well, about 40 in each.”

“I do three of ‘em,” Chase said. Most of the receivers and backs do one of these huge cans.

One hundred twenty balls. Twenty minutes of footballs shot out of a cannon. Hobson fluttering the towel in his face, no words spoken. Once, Hobson succeeded, distracting Chase so the ball clanged off his hands. (“I can tell my grandchildren I broke up a pass intended for Ja’Marr Chase,” Hobson said later.) Chase stopped the drill, ambled 25 yards downfield, picked it up and tossed it back to the assistant helping Knollman feed the machine with ball after ball.

Seemed an odd thing, Chase chasing the errant ball. Let that one go, I thought. Someone will pick it up later.

“Ja’Marr’s different,” Knollman, the equipment guy, said. “If he misses one, he’ll go get it, and the ball gets thrown back to us. He’ll have to do it again. He has to be perfect. He has to catch every one.”

When it was over, Chase took his helmet off. The sweat flowed in rivulets off his head. “Thank you,” he said to the equipment guys. A walk-through hour to get today’s script of plays down, two hours of practice, a five-minute “Get Better” period of catching tennis balls thrown fast, then 20 minutes of this.

We’d talked before practice. I asked him what he’d say to a kid watching this interview.

“Focus on you,” Chase said. “There’s so much you can control. If you want to be great, you’ve got to work at it constantly, every day, even when you’re tired. Gotta know when to push yourself, gotta know when to over-push yourself.”

This was over-pushing himself. It’s his world.

I said to him pre-practice: “You want to be the best, don’t you?”

“That’s my goal,” Chase said.

“No questions?”

“No questions.”

“What about you against [former LSU mate] Justin Jefferson?”

“I’m better than Justin.”

“Davante Adams?”

“I don’t know if I’m better … but I watch his film all the time. He told me he watches my film. That’s definitely something to keep me working.”

One day last week, Chase’s receivers coach, Troy Walters, used Powerpoint before practice to put up a quote from Bo Schembechler in the wide receivers meeting room.

EVERY DAY YOU’RE EITHER GETTING BETTER OR YOU’RE GETTING WORSE. YOU NEVER STAY THE SAME.

The same day, at practice, Walters, who has been significant in Chase’s growth and ethos, told him: “If you want to be really great, you need to be fundamentally sound every day, even in our walk-through.” Walters noticed on one route that Chase was supposed to take four steps off the line, but instead he took five. He admonished Chase. For the rest of the walk-through, Chase would look back at Walters after practicing a route, to see if he’d done it perfectly.

Chase credits Walters with pushing him and polishing him. After Chase had one of the best rookie seasons by a player in recent history—81 catches, 1,455 yards, 18.0 yards per catch, 13 TDs, then a rookie-record 368 postseason receiving yards—what happened a year ago in his rookie training camp seems so incongruous. Remember when he was dropping everything in sight last summer? Walters sat Chase down, showed him tape of how great he was at LSU and said, essentially, this too shall pass, and hard work will fix everything.

“We had a heart to heart,” Walters said. “He’s a great player. The word that comes to mind is freakish. But he understands the value of work, and how important it is in his success. I think what happened is he hadn’t played in the [2020] Covid season, and he just had some rust.”

There’s a drill Walters does with Chase that makes a lot of sense. Chase faces a wall. Walters stands behind him. With Chase focused on the wall, Walters throws a tennis ball hard. It bounces off the wall to a different place in Chase’s catch radius each time, and Chase tries to react instantaneously and grab it.

“Hand-eye coordination,” Chase told me. “Reaction in a split-second is crucial to being great.”

I didn’t sense a lot of the-missed-Super Bowl-chance haunts us out of the Bengals. My theory: This team won fortunate dogfights at Tennessee and Kansas City when Ryan Tannehill and Patrick Mahomes threw late picks, and Evan McPherson kicked 95-yard field goals in both games to get Cincinnati to the big game. I didn’t sense that losing to that great defensive front and Matthew Stafford/Cooper Kupp is a nightmare for Cincinnati going forward. For the Bengals to get to a second straight Super Bowl, the retooled offensive line needs to build a better shield around Joe Burrow (72 sacks in 21 games, by far the most in football). Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd combined for 222 catches, 3,374 yards and 24 TDs last year. It’s absurd to just say, Duplicate that, or do better, but the Bengals need a healthy, full dose of their trio to be great again. Because now the rest of the league looks at the Bengals on the schedule as a challenge, not a bye week.

There’s another reason the uber-popular Chase is particularly valuable to the franchise in a time when the Bengals have taken over the local sports scene: perspective beyond his 22 years. The other day, Knollman said to Chase he appreciated him signing autographs for so many kids after practice.

“These people wait a long time for this,” Chase said. “And it doesn’t last forever.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/08/08/nfl-training-camp-fmia-bengals-packers-titans-peter-king/

I'm so very happy we got Chase and not whoever else.

and he ended his column with this

The Adieu Haiku
Memo to coaches:

Tell your players what Ja’Marr

does after practice.

(08-08-2022, 08:44 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: The Lead: Ja'Marr Chase

What separates the great players from the very good players? I saw it the other day on a lonely field in the Midwest under a summer afternoon broiler, 92 degrees with 85 percent humidity, when the 2021 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year was the only football player at work.

Ja’Marr Chase was the last of 90 players on the field for the AFC champion Bengals on this dog-day Cincinnati afternoon, prepping to catch footballs shot out of a Jugs machine at short range at 40 mph. Chase started catching them with running back Chris Evans providing some distracting defense to make the catches tougher, but then Evans had to hustle inside for a meeting. So now, other than one other Bengal signing autographs 100 yards away for a few fans, and two equipment guys, the place was Bengal-free. Players and coaches were inside the air-conditioned locker room and offices.

Chase now had one problem: He needed a DB to play defense. He saw the stoop-shouldered boss of Bengals.com, Geoff Hobson, waiting for him to finish the drill so he could ask him a few questions. Hobson asked if Chase needed him to play defense.

“If you want to,” Chase said.

In his last football game, the Super Bowl, Chase was guarded by all-world corner Jalen Ramsey.

Now he’d be guarded by a gray-haired 63-year-old scribe who last played football in the Carter administration.

The object of this drill was not only for Chase to work on catching line-drive throws, but to have someone distract him with a tug on the jersey or wave a white Gatorade towel in his face. Hobson grabbed a towel and prepared to distract Chase from catching fastballs from the machine, just eight yards away.

“Wave it in front of my eyes,” Chase told Hobson.

“THWAP!” came the footballs, one after another, shot out of the machine, a Bengals aide handing them to equipment manager Adam Knollman, who fed them into the machine, each ball speeding 24 feet to the orange-gloved Chase. With Hobson fluttering the towel as each line drive zipped toward them, Chase softly hand-caught them, no body involved. Try that sometime.

The oversized rolling garbage can was empty. I called from the sideline: “How many in there?”

Equipment guy: “Well, about 40 in each.”

“I do three of ‘em,” Chase said. Most of the receivers and backs do one of these huge cans.

One hundred twenty balls. Twenty minutes of footballs shot out of a cannon. Hobson fluttering the towel in his face, no words spoken. Once, Hobson succeeded, distracting Chase so the ball clanged off his hands. (“I can tell my grandchildren I broke up a pass intended for Ja’Marr Chase,” Hobson said later.) Chase stopped the drill, ambled 25 yards downfield, picked it up and tossed it back to the assistant helping Knollman feed the machine with ball after ball.

Seemed an odd thing, Chase chasing the errant ball. Let that one go, I thought. Someone will pick it up later.

“Ja’Marr’s different,” Knollman, the equipment guy, said. “If he misses one, he’ll go get it, and the ball gets thrown back to us. He’ll have to do it again. He has to be perfect. He has to catch every one.”

When it was over, Chase took his helmet off. The sweat flowed in rivulets off his head. “Thank you,” he said to the equipment guys. A walk-through hour to get today’s script of plays down, two hours of practice, a five-minute “Get Better” period of catching tennis balls thrown fast, then 20 minutes of this.

We’d talked before practice. I asked him what he’d say to a kid watching this interview.

“Focus on you,” Chase said. “There’s so much you can control. If you want to be great, you’ve got to work at it constantly, every day, even when you’re tired. Gotta know when to push yourself, gotta know when to over-push yourself.”

This was over-pushing himself. It’s his world.

I said to him pre-practice: “You want to be the best, don’t you?”

“That’s my goal,” Chase said.

“No questions?”

“No questions.”

“What about you against [former LSU mate] Justin Jefferson?”

“I’m better than Justin.”

“Davante Adams?”

“I don’t know if I’m better … but I watch his film all the time. He told me he watches my film. That’s definitely something to keep me working.”

One day last week, Chase’s receivers coach, Troy Walters, used Powerpoint before practice to put up a quote from Bo Schembechler in the wide receivers meeting room.

EVERY DAY YOU’RE EITHER GETTING BETTER OR YOU’RE GETTING WORSE. YOU NEVER STAY THE SAME.

The same day, at practice, Walters, who has been significant in Chase’s growth and ethos, told him: “If you want to be really great, you need to be fundamentally sound every day, even in our walk-through.” Walters noticed on one route that Chase was supposed to take four steps off the line, but instead he took five. He admonished Chase. For the rest of the walk-through, Chase would look back at Walters after practicing a route, to see if he’d done it perfectly.

Chase credits Walters with pushing him and polishing him. After Chase had one of the best rookie seasons by a player in recent history—81 catches, 1,455 yards, 18.0 yards per catch, 13 TDs, then a rookie-record 368 postseason receiving yards—what happened a year ago in his rookie training camp seems so incongruous. Remember when he was dropping everything in sight last summer? Walters sat Chase down, showed him tape of how great he was at LSU and said, essentially, this too shall pass, and hard work will fix everything.

“We had a heart to heart,” Walters said. “He’s a great player. The word that comes to mind is freakish. But he understands the value of work, and how important it is in his success. I think what happened is he hadn’t played in the [2020] Covid season, and he just had some rust.”

There’s a drill Walters does with Chase that makes a lot of sense. Chase faces a wall. Walters stands behind him. With Chase focused on the wall, Walters throws a tennis ball hard. It bounces off the wall to a different place in Chase’s catch radius each time, and Chase tries to react instantaneously and grab it.

“Hand-eye coordination,” Chase told me. “Reaction in a split-second is crucial to being great.”

I didn’t sense a lot of the-missed-Super Bowl-chance haunts us out of the Bengals. My theory: This team won fortunate dogfights at Tennessee and Kansas City when Ryan Tannehill and Patrick Mahomes threw late picks, and Evan McPherson kicked 95-yard field goals in both games to get Cincinnati to the big game. I didn’t sense that losing to that great defensive front and Matthew Stafford/Cooper Kupp is a nightmare for Cincinnati going forward. For the Bengals to get to a second straight Super Bowl, the retooled offensive line needs to build a better shield around Joe Burrow (72 sacks in 21 games, by far the most in football). Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd combined for 222 catches, 3,374 yards and 24 TDs last year. It’s absurd to just say, Duplicate that, or do better, but the Bengals need a healthy, full dose of their trio to be great again. Because now the rest of the league looks at the Bengals on the schedule as a challenge, not a bye week.

There’s another reason the uber-popular Chase is particularly valuable to the franchise in a time when the Bengals have taken over the local sports scene: perspective beyond his 22 years. The other day, Knollman said to Chase he appreciated him signing autographs for so many kids after practice.

“These people wait a long time for this,” Chase said. “And it doesn’t last forever.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/08/08/nfl-training-camp-fmia-bengals-packers-titans-peter-king/

Great share.  This is why Joe and Ja'Marr as so close.  They are elite workers AND performers.  

Every time I look at your sig picture, I stare at Ja'Marr's legs.  I swear, he is built like a RB.  Absolute freak.  This is such a great time to be a Bengals fan.

And yes, Peter King, the Bengals know they aren't going to sneak up on anyone this year.  And I absolutely love the fact that they are being referred to as "lucky" or beneficiaries of horrible QB play.  Just keep piling on the doubt.  I love it.  

One of the better things I've read in a long time. Chase is the man and hopefully him and Burrow are together for their entire career in Bengals uniforms.

I know it sounds crazy, but I really think Chase has the ability and make up to be the greatest receiver of all time. Seriously.

(08-10-2022, 06:56 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: Great share.  This is why Joe and Ja'Marr as so close.  They are elite workers AND performers.  

Every time I look at your sig picture, I stare at Ja'Marr's legs.  I swear, he is built like a RB.  Absolute freak.  This is such a great time to be a Bengals fan.

And yes, Peter King, the Bengals know they aren't going to sneak up on anyone this year.  And I absolutely love the fact that they are being referred to as "lucky" or beneficiaries of horrible QB play.  Just keep piling on the doubt.  I love it.  

Funny you say that because that was the first thing I noticed as well lol 

His legs are huge. I've seen videos of him in the weight room - he does NOT **** around.

(08-10-2022, 09:08 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Funny you say that because that was the first thing I noticed as well lol 

His legs are huge. I've seen videos of him in the weight room - he does NOT **** around.

It’s why corners and safeties struggle to take him down. Those legs out in space….

(08-08-2022, 09:10 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I'm so very happy we got Chase and not whoever else.

I fully admit that I wanted Sewell over Chase; I thought OL was way more important than a receiver no matter how good he was.

Man, I've never been so glad to have been wrong as I am over the Chase v Sewell debate.

(08-10-2022, 10:41 AM)PhilHos Wrote: I fully admit that I wanted Sewell over Chase; I thought OL was way more important than a receiver no matter how good he was.

Man, I've never been so glad to have been wrong as I am over the Chase v Sewell debate.

I was on the fence bad about it and was going to make myself happy with either pick.

But man am I so very happy they went Chase. 

(08-10-2022, 10:41 AM)PhilHos Wrote: I fully admit that I wanted Sewell over Chase; I thought OL was way more important than a receiver no matter how good he was.

Man, I've never been so glad to have been wrong as I am over the Chase v Sewell debate.

Me too, but when he was drafted, I was fine with the pick. I knew he was a great player. What I didn't know was just how humble this guy is, and just how hard he works. I know you don't become elite without it, but so many guys with Ja'Marr's physical gifts rely on them more than the extra work. This dude does both. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he seems like such a great person too. I loved it when his and Joe Burrow's dad smoked victory cigars together after beating KC. These two are like peas and carrots. Hope they remain in Cincinnati until they hang em up.

(08-10-2022, 11:50 AM)Wyche Wrote: Me too, but when he was drafted, I was fine with the pick. I knew he was a great player. What I didn't know was just how humble this guy is, and just how hard he works. I know you don't become elite without it, but so many guys with Ja'Marr's physical gifts rely on them more than the extra work. This dude does both. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he seems like such a great person too. I loved it when his and Joe Burrow's dad smoked victory cigars together after beating KC. These two are like peas and carrots. Hope they remain in Cincinnati until they hang em up.

Sadly, there was plenty of good information out there pre-draft regarding Chase's work ethic and character, but it kind of got lost in the shuffle due to his crazy RAS scores and insane production at such a young age in college.  I would have been ok with Sewell or Pitts if they had been the pick, but Chase was definitely my guy.  Everything indicated that this kid would be an absolute monster.

(08-10-2022, 12:20 PM)Whatever Wrote: Sadly, there was plenty of good information out there pre-draft regarding Chase's work ethic and character, but it kind of got lost in the shuffle due to his crazy RAS scores and insane production at such a young age in college.  I would have been ok with Sewell or Pitts if they had been the pick, but Chase was definitely my guy.  Everything indicated that this kid would be an absolute monster.

I remember posting his training video from EXOS for example. Certain people were just too dug in to see it though.

Anyway, let’s not turn this into a Chase vs Sewell thread.

This is just too funny:

"Chase now had one problem: He needed a DB to play defense. He saw the stoop-shouldered boss of Bengals.com, Geoff Hobson, waiting for him to finish the drill so he could ask him a few questions. Hobson asked if Chase needed him to play defense.

'If you want to,' Chase said.

In his last football game, the Super Bowl, Chase was guarded by all-world corner Jalen Ramsey.

Now he’d be guarded by a gray-haired 63-year-old scribe who last played football in the Carter administration."

(08-10-2022, 12:20 PM)Whatever Wrote: Sadly, there was plenty of good information out there pre-draft regarding Chase's work ethic and character, but it kind of got lost in the shuffle due to his crazy RAS scores and insane production at such a young age in college.  I would have been ok with Sewell or Pitts if they had been the pick, but Chase was definitely my guy.  Everything indicated that this kid would be an absolute monster.

I'm sure there was, I just never read it. Like you said, watching the tape kinda just leaves you not even worrying about that stuff. Obviously I knew there were no character concerns as far as mixups with the law and the like, but without seeing a guy behind the scenes, you never know if it's a guy's immense talent overshadowing college talent or if it's that combined with stellar practice habits. Now we know it's both.

Like I said, when they announced the pick, I was good with it, while still being apprehensive about the line. My thoughts were he and Burrow would do well, but the team might not be so hot because of the line. Sure was glad to be wrong about that. Now we have him AND a revamped oline. Lots of potential for this team now. I'm certainly glad Tobin and company ignored the noise and brought him onboard. I really like him, and his WR mates for that matter.

(08-10-2022, 01:22 PM)Nepa Wrote: This is just too funny:

"Chase now had one problem: He needed a DB to play defense. He saw the stoop-shouldered boss of Bengals.com, Geoff Hobson, waiting for him to finish the drill so he could ask him a few questions. Hobson asked if Chase needed him to play defense.

'If you want to,' Chase said.

In his last football game, the Super Bowl, Chase was guarded by all-world corner Jalen Ramsey.

Now he’d be guarded by a gray-haired 63-year-old scribe who last played football in the Carter administration."

This is nothing new.  Hobson has been covering Chase for well over a year now.

(08-10-2022, 09:08 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Funny you say that because that was the first thing I noticed as well lol 

His legs are huge. I've seen videos of him in the weight room - he does NOT **** around.

If I recall, he did 225lbs a whopping 23 times.  That's insane.  There are a lot of 250 lb + LBs and DEs that don't put up a number like that.  And at just 200 lbs (his weight).  Not to mention his speed that goes along with it.  He is flat out stronger than every guy that tries to cover him and he is faster than most as well.  Crazy.  Crazy awesome.  

One last tidbit on my little JaMarr love-fest:  That final play where he broke away from Ramsey (who fell down...99 ranking my ass) and Joe got spun around, after he saw the ball fall incomplete, he SLAMMED his helmet to the ground.  The game really matters to him.  You know it. 

(08-10-2022, 03:43 PM)Wyche Wrote: I'm sure there was, I just never read it. Like you said, watching the tape kinda just leaves you not even worrying about that stuff. Obviously I knew there were no character concerns as far as mixups with the law and the like, but without seeing a guy behind the scenes, you never know if it's a guy's immense talent overshadowing college talent or if it's that combined with stellar practice habits. Now we know it's both.

Like I said, when they announced the pick, I was good with it, while still being apprehensive about the line. My thoughts were he and Burrow would do well, but the team might not be so hot because of the line. Sure was glad to be wrong about that. Now we have him AND a revamped oline. Lots of potential for this team now. I'm certainly glad Tobin and company ignored the noise and brought him onboard. I really like him, and his WR mates for that matter.

I was 100% Team Chase (takes yet another victory lap), but I was also Team Ross (falls on victory lap, face plants...).  Chase did EXACTLY what I was hoping Ross could do:  Take the top off a defense and open up underneath as well as take a short pass to the house after one missed tackle.  Now, I didn't envision Ross breaking any tackles like Chase broke off three guys in the Baltimore game, but just outrunning guys.

When they made the pick, I figured CJ, Boyd, and Higgins would be the biggest beneficiaries.  I couldn't fully get behind Mixon having a huge year with the questions on the line.  That is what is so awesome about this season.  There is every reason to think the receivers take ANOTHER step and eliminate the dud games like Chicago and Denver, but Mixon could have the best year of his career.  If he gets back to the 5.0 YPC number.  Wow.  Look out.  

Taking Ross and sticking to those guns was huge by Tobin & Company.  It could have been very easy to be afraid of taking another speed outside WR early in Rd 1, but they did it after essentially admitting they whiffed on Ross, and ended up with the best rookie season in NFL history.  

It's kind of like how Detroit drafted Megatron after a couple failed first round WRs.  Paid off eventually.  

(08-11-2022, 09:19 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: I was 100% Team Chase (takes yet another victory lap), but I was also Team Ross (falls on victory lap, face plants...).  Chase did EXACTLY what I was hoping Ross could do:  Take the top off a defense and open up underneath as well as take a short pass to the house after one missed tackle.  Now, I didn't envision Ross breaking any tackles like Chase broke off three guys in the Baltimore game, but just outrunning guys.

When they made the pick, I figured CJ, Boyd, and Higgins would be the biggest beneficiaries.  I couldn't fully get behind Mixon having a huge year with the questions on the line.  That is what is so awesome about this season.  There is every reason to think the receivers take ANOTHER step and eliminate the dud games like Chicago and Denver, but Mixon could have the best year of his career.  If he gets back to the 5.0 YPC number.  Wow.  Look out.  

Taking Ross and sticking to those guns was huge by Tobin & Company.  It could have been very easy to be afraid of taking another speed outside WR early in Rd 1, but they did it after essentially admitting they whiffed on Ross, and ended up with the best rookie season in NFL history.  

It's kind of like how Detroit drafted Megatron after a couple failed first round WRs.  Paid off eventually.  

No doubt. I was upset with the Ross pick.....I was just a little apprehensive about Chase only because of the line. I figured he would be good, but I admittedly didn't think he would be THIS good this early. As I said during all of that fiasco, we really couldn't go wrong with the pick as far as individual player went....but I was skeptical about the betterment of the team. He erased my concerns game one, lol.

This kid is special. I know its early, but we may have 2 future HOF'ers on this team with Chase and Burrow. Such a great time to be a Bengal fan!

(08-10-2022, 12:28 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Anyway, let’s not turn this into a Chase vs Sewell thread.

Calm down, Officer Killjoy, Thread PD. Just because someone mentioned Sewell doesn't mean this is a Chase v Sewell thread.