While the national outlook looked concerningly at the fact Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase wasn’t at voluntary work, that mood all changed when he showed up this week.
As expected, Chase showed up for mandatory work this past week. And also, as expected, he looked good and right in line with what head coach Zac Taylor expected too.
“It was good to get him back in here. He’s in great shape,” Taylor said. “When someone’s not been here, you don’t want to rush him into things, but he clearly has done a great job this offseason. Really happy to get him back in the building. He was in all the meetings, did all the walkthroughs and all that stuff, and then did a great job mentoring some of the other players as he was out there during practice. So I thought we got what we needed out of him and was appreciative of him even though it is mandatory. You see there are still guys that aren’t always there and he showed up and did everything that we talked about him doing.”
Chase is indeed one of the next big names up for an extension now that Justin Jefferson’s new deal reset the market.
But there was never any doubt about Chase’s attendance, prep and work at practices this week. That’s something that applies to training camp next month and beyond, too.
LIVE: Zac Taylor speaks to the media following Mandatory Minicamp https://t.co/wwj9m3MF3e
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) June 13, 2024
