Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase didn’t practice on Thursday, making that two days in a row to start training camp.
And yet, there’s little reason—at least for now—to think that it has everything to do with his contract.
Chase enters 2024 on the fourth year of his deal before the fifth-year option next season. While he’s only set to make a base salary of $1.055 million and $4.86 million total, there’s no sign that is the issue.
In fact, Chase has been on record as saying he wants to wait to do an extension while names like Justin Jefferson and even CeeDee Lamb reset the market first. Jefferson is done, at least.
While there has been some precedent for elite players to get paid earlier in recent years (such as DeVonta Smith), Chase continues to benefit by waiting — and he’s going to make more than pretty much any of them.
Bengals president Mike Brown also said this week that the team will “bend over backwards” to make a deal happen. That he sounded like it won’t happen this summer seems more to do with Chase’s camp wanting to wait than unwillingness from the team.
And to top it all off, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor made it clear that these would be light days for Chase. Just like an upcoming day will be a light one for Joe Burrow and Trey Hendrickson was another veteran not practicing on Thursday. It is, after all, late July, no need to risk serious injury yet — like Burrow on July 27 of last year.
Case in point, Taylor’s comments on Thursday, per Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic:
Zac Taylor said Ja’Marr Chase not participating today part of plan, along with Tee Higgins being limited and Trey Hendrickson sitting out.
Burrow won’t throw tomorrow.
Wouldn’t say if Chase absence was contract-related and offered a “we’ll see” about his participation Friday.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) July 25, 2024
As for Chase, he’s not saying much, per the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway:
Just asked Ja’Marr Chase if he isn’t practicing due to contract related reasons, his response was “no comment.”
— Kelsey Conway (@KelseyLConway) July 25, 2024
Barring a stunner of a report or Chase himself saying it in the coming days and weeks, this is a combination of things, but mostly business as usual for a Bengals team that had a star quarterback go down and season effectively derailed by it almost exactly one year ago.
