It sounds like the Cincinnati Bengals are quite happy with how the Ja’Marr Chase saga has played out.
Understandably, Chase was a topic of discussion right after the Bengals beat the Titans in Week 12.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said while nothing is guaranteed, the limited practice Chase had all last week would seem to set up nicely for Week 13 against the Chiefs.
“There’s not a gameplan on how this thing was going to unfold,” Taylor said, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “I think ultimately, we’re happy with how it played out that we didn’t put him on IR. So, he got a chance to practice a week earlier than he would have. So now we can go into next week, I’m not going to make any promises, but feeling like, ‘OK, we’ve seen him on the grass.’ I think he’s feeling pretty good. And so we’ll just evaluate where he’s at starting next Wednesday.”
When the Bengals initially chose not to put Chase on injured reserve, it seemed like there was an outside chance he could come back earlier than if he had gone on I.R., which would have meant playing against the Titans.
But even though that didn’t come to fruition, Chase was indeed permitted an extra week of practice before the game against the Titans. That will make for two weeks of practice in a row before the team (and potentially doctors) make a call about his status against the Chiefs.
So far, it’s all worked out — just look at the message Chase sent out after his guys won in Tennessee without him.
