Ja’Marr Chase Press Conference – October 23

Ja’Marr Chase Press Conference – October 23

Jamar, you’re named um AFC offensive player of the week for the past week for the Steelers game. Does something like that really do anything for you? Is it cool or what were your thoughts when you first got that award? Uh it was pretty cool, but still got to go out there every week and prove it again. Um so I mean it’s a cool little award, but I don’t get overhyped for it. We’re not sure if Sas is going to win it. What What stands out about his game? makes him special? Uh, real handsy corner. Um, one of the most handsy corners I’ve seen in the league. Um, always gets his hands on the as a receiver at the line. So, that’s how he plays the best. Does that excite you when you see that kind of thing on tape or, you know, it could be a physical matchup? No, I wouldn’t say it’s exciting. Just like preparating for a handy corner. Not all corners play like that. You know what I’m saying? What’s it been like getting just additional time with Flaco in practice? kind of have you have you sense the difference now that he’s been here a little bit longer. Y’all are on a normal week. Finally, is that has that made a big impact for you? Um, honestly, it’s starting to feel like he’s been here. Um, I mean, he still calls the plays how he calls the play sometimes. He might mess it up every hand and there, but um, honestly, we still it still feels comfortable in a huddle with him, hearing the plays. Um, feels like he been hit before. What’s it feel like to know y’all are a game away from getting back to 400 back to 500 after having that rough stretch just a few weeks ago? Um, that’s what we want to be honest. I don’t know nothing about the 500 or nothing like that, but I mean we want to win the next game, win the next two games, but we got to focus on the first one first. Do you think Joe’s injury put you on a track to being a leader? I mean, you were emerging as a but injury fast tracking and put you in a spot where maybe you didn’t think you’d be. Yes. In what ways? Uh just being more vocal and um really just doing everything right. I feel like I’ve always did majority of the things right here. But um when Joe’s not here, majority of the guys look at me now than then when Joe’s here, everybody look at Joe ask Joe stuff. So um it just it just I have a big say. So the guys respect my opinion. With Flaco coming in and you really have to kind of help the guy. Did that did that accelerate it too? What you mean help him? You have to help him with the playbook. You got to help him accelerate it. It depends. It depends cuz if we get a long play call, then he he might mess up. He might say it backwards or he might say it in a different way, but we still know what he’s trying to say. Um we don’t correct him, but we just go out there and line up in the right formation. As long as he gets us to play in in some type of form that we know it, then we’ll I think we’ll be all be fine. When you talk about being vocal, being more vocal, you talking about is that like holding guys accountable or is that just being encouraging? Like what what type? All the above. Everything. Um everything that comes with being vocal. You know what I’m saying? I got to um small things like practice. You know what I’m saying? And if one of the receivers messing up or they ran something wrong, I’m going to speak up and let them know. Or even if it’s a certain way we running a a concept and it needs to be ran with a certain release form, I was I would speak up. So certain stuff like that is when I would speak up. Jamar, who taught you to be an elite blocker or where did you learn that? Uh I wouldn’t say I’m an elite blocker. Okay, that’s a little that’s a little pushing it. Who taught you to be an okay slashdecent blocker? I I will take the decent. I’ll take decent. I I got a lot I got a room I got a lot of room to improve. I already told Chase this. So, um but it it honestly it takes effort. You know what I’m saying? You look at Riser from the last game. His effort is every is every play. So, it it takes a lot of effort and will and want when you’re playing out there. When you’re watching film though, you know, and Zach talked about illuminating when you were blocking downfield in the last game. Do you get just as excited when a coach calls out like how well you blocked versus maybe a good play call for a touchdown? Um, it’s really rare when they do that though. You know what I’m saying? It’s rare Zach puts me on spot and say, “Good job blocking.” Um, but it’s just cool. I don’t know. I find it funny when he does that sometimes. Did anybody say anything after that? Like, did any lineman say anything? Have they said anything about that? Um, no. No. You mentioned Riser Flack goes down the building. Are there is there stuff that you gained from how these guys have operated as pros in the league that you kind of have picked up and you like to incorporate how you want to, you know, go about your career when it’s all said and done? Like is there things that they do that you kind of have noticed and you like and want to incorporate from other players on the team? No, from those like from some of the vets like like Riser Black or some guys who’ve been around the league for a while. Um, it’s a little harder when they play a different position, you know what I’m saying? Cuz around that time, I’m I’m mostly asking them life questions. You know what I’m saying? They didn’t been there. They didn’t seen a lot. Um, if I want to talk to a veteran to help me, I mean, Flack will still help me, but I feel like I want to talk to more of a receiver veteran to give me more of an aspect on what I want to know. With a lot of questions, I mean, that’s still applicable. Like, are there things that you want to like what are you picking their brains about in terms of, you know, what what they’ve done, what they’ve experienced? Um, I mean early today I I asked Flaco something just like about his kids. You know what I’m saying? But nothing really much. I don’t really ask Flaco too much of stuff like that. Did you see uh yesterday his clip that went viral about going to a restaurant and sitting by himself and and how Okay. Well, no. I’m not really not on social media. I’m not going to lie. Have you done that? Gone to a restaurant by yourself and just been able to take a breath by myself? Yeah. You had that phase of life. Of course not. If you I would never go eat by myself. Why not? I could do that at home. If you walked into a restaurant and you saw Joe Flacco sitting there by himself, would you join him or just be like, I would tell him, “Bro, we got to go get in the back room or something. You don’t need to be in in the front.” You know, Jamar, what’s the biggest number of catches you think you could get in a game? 26. I mean, I left a lot out there. If I’m being honest, I left a lot out there. Um, so, but I doubt I was really going to get 26, though. But probably like 17, 18. You don’t think you can get 20? Yeah. I mean, sky’s is the limit at the end of the day. SK is always the limit. But it’s going to get it’s not going to be easy. Tell you that. Like, I don’t want bubbles as five catches, 10 catches, you know? So, is it on the mirror? Yeah. Do you have something like that in the mirror? No. No, no, no, no more goals. All right. No more Super Bowl. That’s it. That’s it. What about the I mean, this falls in line with the Jets defensive coordinator was talking about you and you said already on the track to be a Hall of Famer. Is that a goal of yours? To be a Hall of Famer 100%. Yeah. Yeah. But I I can’t talk about it. I got to let my work do the talking, you know. Do you have Super Bowl written up on a sticky note? Yes. And that’s the only one? Only one. What do you make of Garrett Wilson’s game? Of Garrett Wilson’s? Yeah. Uh, he reminds me of Devonte Adams a lot. You know, they they move very similar. Um, and he make a lot of good contested catches. That’s what I see a lot from him. Yeah. Do you feel like there’s a lot of receivers around the league who have the potential to be really good, but maybe just not in situations where they can kind of display their talent? Do you feel like that’s kind of common? I mean, yeah, you can say that about anybody. You know what I’m saying? That’s that’s an opinion also, but you can say that about anybody in in any uh organization they play for. After the game, this is after you had you know had 26 catches with Flaco and Zach said you had taken five live reps. Um how does that how does that happen? You take five live reps with a guy and you look he looks like he’s been throwing to you forever. How How does that happen? Uh that’s a flack question 100%. I don’t know. I just he didn’t he just said it was because you know you know great receivers and Higgins and Chase if you don’t throw to him. I mean yeah I don’t know. I mean I I would assume he expects us to be open. That’s the biggest thing. But like when you do a speed up right? I mean, that’s a Doesn’t that I mean, you know, that’s a training thing, right? Yeah. But you guys must have completed five or six Thursday. I don’t think we threw one speed out before I caught any speed outs with him, if I’m being honest. What’s that? I don’t think I’ve practiced. He caught a speed out with him into the game. But you can like caught five in a game. So, how do you do that? Uh, I don’t know. Great quarterback. He’s a good quarterback. That’s also a good thing. Good quarterback makes the receiver looks good. Good receiver makes the quarterback look good there. So, we just compliment each other. He said you didn’t bump I’m sorry. No. Uh he said you didn’t bobble that one. He said you were changing hands. The one on the sideline. Yeah. I I was confused. I I do it all the time on the catch. I catch it and switch my hand every time. But I don’t know. I don’t know. You used to talk to us about individual goals and things that you would put on the sticky note. Now you just you look at not only that, but other things that we’ve spoken to you about. You look at it through the lens of like what’s going to get us to a Super Bowl. What has changed the way you view things? Like what what’s changed the way the lens in which you look at things? Uh me me doing personal accolades didn’t get didn’t get us to the Super Bowl, you know, my rookie year. Um but I just had a lot of adrenaline wanting to play that year. Um not saying that that’s the reason why, but it’s just it’s just it don’t it don’t do nothing. You know what I’m saying? Um, I just need to be a leader and hold myself accountable and make more plays. But what I worry about the accolades, what what do you think is going to be the biggest thing that keeps the offensive success rolling these next couple weeks as you kind of get into the buy? Um, I would say being consistent on moving a chains. That’s the biggest thing for us, being consistent on moving a chains to get us in position to score a touchdown. What does that entail? What is that? How do you How do you What What goes What’s the biggest Because Zach talks about that all the time. In your mind, what’s the biggest thing about being consistent, getting first downs and kind of finding a good rhythm offensively, catching the ball, making one guy miss, um, drop stepping fast, getting extra two yards after contract, three yards after contact, stuff like that. What has Joe brought? He’s been here for 16 days now. Obviously, your offense has picked up, but how would you describe what he’s brought to this locker room? Um, I’m be honest, Joe barely talks in the locker room. he talks more on the field than the locker room. Um, but he just brings a veteran mindset to the game of from the quarterback position and knows what he’s doing when he sees it. Um, that’s the biggest thing, you know. Um, it feels like Joe when he’s out there just because Burrow. It feels like Joe Burrow when he’s out there just because he knows the cadences, he knows the the the the gap schemes, the blitz schemes, the pickups. So, he does a great job on on knowing all all that. Has anything surprised you about Joe Flacco since you started to work with him? I know it’s only been a couple of weeks, but your impressions of him before versus now. Um, I think he just keep amazing me. I I don’t I I don’t I never grew up watching Joe Flacco for real. Um, but he keeps continuing to amaze me every day, you know, every every week. What does he do? What is he doing that way? Like why is he playing everything he does? just the way he approaches the game. What are the toughest catches you make? Toughest catches I’ve made in the NFL. Uh, in your mind, what goes into difficult? What goes into it? Um, really just a lot of hand eye coordination. Um, and and attacking the ball. You know, those are those are the main two things. um attacking the ball can draw a flag or make a catch easier. Hand eye coordination is just of course going to make the catch easier and get the defender off you. Do you normally think about making a catch traffic versus when you’re wide open? Is it ever? I don’t think about neither one of those. I’m really just focused on the ball for the most part. I’m going to get hit regardless. So, you either going to drop it and get hit or catch it and get hit. Did you get flack a hard time by his reaction on the drop in the game or the field? No, I never I never even approached him about that if I’m being honest. And we watched that in the meeting room with the receivers. That was pretty funny. What was the reaction like? Um I mean I need to catch the damn ball when you throw it. I’m be honest. But that’s just pretty cool though. You know what I’m saying? Quarterback like that believes in anytime he throws me the ball, it’s going to be a catch. So it’s good. Is there a bit of an adjustment between how Flack because he’s gotten such a big loss since it’s different. You throw from Joe and Jake over the years. Is that a big adjustment for receivers getting used to how Flaco delivers the ball to y’all? No. No, not really. Uh they when he when we first picked him up, they said he threw pretty hard, but I didn’t think so. I think he threw one hard pass to me and that was it. So, and that was at practice. So, Jamar, you do you do uh jersey swaps, Jamar? Say one time. You do jersey swaps often after games. What do you do with those jerseys? Um well, I got two more I got two boxes of just jerseys cuz I I don’t I don’t have no more room in my house to hang up. So, I don’t know what the heck I’m going to do with the rest of them yet. Probably put them in my offseason house or something, you know. Do you frame them? Put them I frame them though. They all framed. Some got tickets in them. Some got pictures next to them. So, there it’s all kinds. Why is that important to you? Uh just the memories I get to have. Um growing up, I’ve watched players do it all the time. And um getting an opportunity to to get to the NFL and get jerseys from Devonte Adams and and and Mike Evans and those guys like that, you know. Watching those guys when I was younger, it’s it’s basically like a dream come true for me, you know? I get to live in a moment for it. Is there one that’s super special to you? Um, I would say Devonte and um why can’t I remember this guy’s name? This is bad. Huh? Chargers, can you help? Thank you. I was saying Mike Allen in my head. I’m like, “What the fuck?” Why? Why? Kean always loved his routes. I always watch his routes. Always watch his highlights because of his routes. Um, so vice versa with both of them. You guys message each other before the game or is it just natural after? It’s usually like right after. The only person that had Michael was the only person that text me that got somebody to text me and ask for the jersey because he hit me on Instagram and I didn’t see it. So, I was the only person that did that. I’m super curious about this for guys that do jersey swaps, especially when you get you’re just pulling it off your back and handing it over. Yeah. Um, do you wash it before you frame it or anything or do you like to keep like the grass? Well, you’re being funny. Okay. So, so it is dirty, but they they spray it with a a fraab cleanser. So, it’s like it’s not bleach, but it’s it’s sprayed. So, the stains stay there, but the smell goes away. Huh? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, the house I have dirty jerseys, but the house isn’t. Okay. It’s stained though. Yeah. Good. Good question though. Glad you cleared that. I thought it would leave the windows open. N. Joe Flaco laughed a little bit yesterday about the fact that his name’s Joe and Joe Barrow is Joe. And how weird has that been or funny has that been for you? Um, Joe. Well, now it gets to a point cuz Bur was starting to come back to the meetings and they say Joe all the time. So, obviously we talking to Flacko, but I be thinking Joe Joe sit next to me. So, I be thinking Joe going to say something some sometime when he’s saying his name cuz usually he have an input, but one of these days I’m sure it’ll happen. Has he been in a better mood over these last few weeks since as the injury kind of passes? How’s his spirit? I can never tell his mood. going to be honest, but I he seems pretty happy to me, you know, even though he looked like a rock star by the head, but he’s pretty happy after all these years. You can’t tell his mood. I can tell his mood when he’s overly happy. When he’s overly happy, I can 100% see that. You know what I’m saying? Other than that, well, when he’s pissed, I for sure know that when he creeps me out a couple times, so I know when he’s pissed, too. How How has he been attacking this rehab compared to, you know, he’s he’s rehabbed a ton, different injuries of severity over the years. How’s this one been compared? He’s working pretty hard for the majority of the times that I’ve seen him in a training room working. I try to walk in there, give him a couple laughs. So, you know, not make his day a little better, but he’s he’s working. Who’s the best leader you ever been around and you emulate all you try to take some? [Music] It’s a good question. Um, I’ll probably say like somebody from high school cuz I never really I’ve been around Joe my whole life. That’s the only guy that was like old enough. TB was here, but TB was TB. Everybody knows TB. And then like college, it was Joe again. And it was like all the guys I knew in high school. So, we ended up going to college together. But I would say high school just because of the quarterback that I had. Uh, he was he was always holding accountability for me. always, even when I was a freshman and a sophomore, um, always making sure I was on top of everything. Um, and even in high school, I used to be late for meetings, so he used to chew me out as a quarterback. So, Chase Chase 4K was one of the guys I’d say. So, did that did that get you out of that break you habit? Um, no. I was late a couple times when I got to the NFL, but I eventually grew out of it. I mean, you mature over time, you know. Thanks, Jamar. Cool.

Ja’Marr Chase speaks to the media ahead of Week 8 against the New York Jets.

Presented by @eero

Subscribe to the Bengals YT Channel: https://bit.ly/3jbqOLG
#RuletheJungle #WhoDey #Bengals

For more Bengals action: https://www.bengals.com/
Download the Bengals app: http://apps.yinzcam.com/nfl/cin
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bengals/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Bengals/
Follow us on Twitter: https://X.com/Bengals