Ja’Marr Chase on Bengals’ Must-Win Game vs. Steelers, Joe Burrow’s return to practice and more

Ja’Marr Chase on Bengals’ Must-Win Game vs. Steelers, Joe Burrow’s return to practice and more

How was by week for you? It’s pretty good. Pretty smooth. So, what’s the biggest thing that you want when you reflected over the by-week? What’s the biggest thing that jumped out to you as you kind of approach these the second half of the season? Uh, we got eight games left. I mean, nothing really jump out to me for real, if I’m being honest. Really just getting a moment, having a free of mind, and getting my body right for a minute. What’s it like having Burrow back out there? I know he’s not in 11 on 111s, but just to have him out there during practice, uh, feels good having him out there. I mean, I I like messing with him now that he’s back. I can usually do that when he was injured, but just having him out there is just good having it’s just best for everybody. You know what I’m saying? The energy feels good for the whole offense. Just making sure he’s back, you know? So, he definitely puts smiles on people faces. How involved is he? How how involved is he um during these practices? Um he does like um he does like I think indie. I don’t really know like what else he does besides indie, but he don’t do like no team drills, nothing like that. So majority time he just like you know doing his own stuff on the side and then coming to practice. How do you mess with uh I bump him, headbutt him, punch him. whatever I can. Kind of like a brother, like a older brother. I treat him like a little like my little brother, though. I’m like I like bullying him a little bit. Does he I mean, he’s not one to take a lot of that. I mean, does he ever hit you back? Uh once I start throwing punches, that’s when he’s interested into fighting. Yeah. He like He like UFC. Yeah. Say it again. Why do you think that is? Why do you Why do you think it takes a couple punches for him to land? for him to been like, “All right, let’s see.” Uh, I just think he liked the motion of punching and kicking. He’s such a UFC fighter. So, did he clear you in? Did you Did you know he was getting close or were you surprised as some people when he practiced? Yeah. Do you know he was I didn’t know he was practicing? I was surprised. I just seen him putting his stuff on. I didn’t know what was going on. When did that start? When did you start messing with him? Did you do that at LSU? Hell no. Why not? He didn’t He didn’t talk to nobody. And I ain’t really know him either. I’m not gonna push somebody buttons if I don’t know him yet. You know, I just mess with him every here and there. But like now he’s it’s like, you know, I see him. We don’t talk. We don’t talk in the morning sometimes cuz it’d be so early for me. Then once lunch time come, we start talking a little bit. So not really till you got here did you start being the type to mess with Joe a little more. I want to say just his last year at LSU. Yeah. Uh felt like we had a lot of just a bond. Practice only or will you push his buttons, get him going during games? Maybe if we score that drive, I might say some slick Oh, slick some slick words to him. Sorry. Nelson, what’s you know, obviously a big game against the Steelers coming up. What would that what would that mean to be able to sweep them and kind of get some momentum back after kind of how the season’s went, especially these last couple weeks? Uh yeah, I think it I think it’ll be good just to get our momentum back after these past two games we lost. Um just knowing the feeling of how it feels to lose and win. Um knowing after some games we supposed to win. So, you know, just having that feeling um of losing, I think we don’t want to feel that again. So, you know, we got to have the mindset to win this game cuz it’s where we want to be for the AFC. Does it help having Flaco on your team knowing that he’s this will be the third time that he’s played them this season? Does that help at all for you guys or? Um, yes. But that’s more of a quarterback question. I’m not in the quarterback role. I don’t know what they’re talking about. Well, does he talk with you guys like if he notices something? No. No, not really. No. You’re just not a talkative guy. I mean, good job. Pretty much what we get usually. Let’s go. Have you Have you looked at that tape uh with with Ramsay going to safety? What does what does that mean for him? What does that how does that change? What’s it mean? Uh I mean it just really show he just really showing how versatile he is as a as a person um as a as a DB, you know what I’m saying? And um I think they had like I think he only moved a safety because it was a change on the back end. So, I’m not really sure 100% what’s going on, how they doing that, but you know, he’s just showing off how versatile he is. Does it make him different? Does it make him different how they play? Uh, I don’t think so. Now, I think he had a couple snaps of safety when we first played him, actually. I mean, is he he probably won’t come to you as much now, right? Probably not, but I’m sure he going to want to. What do you think about Porter his game? Hansy. Real handsy. He You had him. You were up against him a lot in the first game. Do you feel like did you did do you like that matchup for you with guys that are like I like any matchup with me. I mean I don’t really it don’t really matter. Um I love I love a game. I love competing. Jamar, this team has had to climb its way out of a hole before. I mean last year 4 and eight. You guys got back to 9 and 8 even if it was in the playoffs. For you personally, h how difficult is it to just mentally grind out of where you are to believe this team can turn it around? Um, it’s going to take a lot of will to do that. Um, just just being positive as I can. You know what I’m saying? Try to get everybody on board and just practice the same, practice hard. Um, come to come to work the same day, consistency. Um, and just trying to get all the guys on the same page and just, you know, we all want the same thing. So, we got to all want the same desire and work for it. Does going through what you went through as a team last year, like you said, four and eight and getting to the point where you won five straight. Does that give you hope, inspiration, kind of thought that we can do this again if we just grind? I mean, yeah. I mean, it’s a whole bunch of ways you could look at it. You know what I’m saying? It’s it’s the NFL also. Um, we getting we getting put in these situations for a reason to see how tough we are um on the back end. So, I mean, as long as as long as guys come together and as long as we focus at the end of the day, that’s that’s what it’s all about. Do you would you say the team is still together? Yeah. I don’t think nobody left spread apart or anything like that. What do you What was your demeanor like when you got to LSU in terms of like your your how you were with the other receivers with the with the team? How do you how did that how were you like when you got in as a freshman and how did that grow the longer you were there? Um, so my situation was a little different. I had um me and Terence Terence Marshall was number one and number two receivers in in Louisiana. So coming out of high school, we was battling for a spot off like immediately. You know what I’m saying? We put in the same position, backed up behind each other, and we was competing. Um and then they had Rey McMad, um D Anderson, they had um Stefan Sullivan, they had they they had a lot of receivers at that time. We had we was we was really packed at receiver and um I just wanted to just go in and just work, bro. Just work my butt off and just make sure I had opportunity to get on the field and uh I think the first game was my my first game was my first touchdown, too. So, just getting an opportunity. Was there an extra chip I I remember that recruiting class? Well, Terrace was the guy in that class nationally. Was that an extra chip on your shoulder to go and prove that like, hey, you know, I’m just as good as this guy was? Uh, no. No. I mean, I wasn’t really competing with him at the end of the day. I was competing with myself at the end of the day. I still knew how good I was. And back then, man, I was not really I wasn’t really hurray and excited for like number one in the nation, number five in the state and stuff like that. I wasn’t really worried about it cuz I played against those guys every day. You know what I’m saying? So, I knew how good I really was at the end of the day. So, if you guys win, you’re one game out of first, you lose, you’re three out, seven to go. Does Does this feel like it has a a must-win element to it? Yeah, it’s a must win if you want to win the AFC. 100%. Yeah. You approach it any differently because of that? No. I mean, you can’t approach another game differently because it’s a must win game. You got to approach every game the same. You want to win every game, so approach every game the same. How has Pittsburgh changed up the confies on you if at all? Um, a lot of disguises. A lot of disguises. Usually the past couple years has been like usually man high. You know what I’m saying? play a little three. Uh but this year they mix mix around some cloud showing a little quarters every here and there, little little three buzz, um some six strong sometimes. So they they throw around pretty much a little bit of everything just because they know what kind of DBs they have on the back end. Does it pretty much come down to man? I mean they show you a lot of stuff. Does it pretty much come down to making a play when it’s time? Yeah. Why have you taken a lot of guys when they become captains? It doesn’t you don’t see a big difference. seems like it’s meant a lot to you and kind of changed the way you approach things. Why has that been the case for you? Why has that meant so much to you? Uh, I think the only thing that has changed for me was just being vocal. I don’t think it changed nothing else if I’m being honest. Um, everybody could tell you I’m the same every day. I do the same, you know, I act the same. Um, I’m just a little more vocal now than I I I’ve I’ve been these past couple years just because I I really had to embrace that role just because Joe wasn’t here and just because a lot of guys look up to me and with the captain on my jersey. Why did captain You talked a lot about that captain meaning a lot to why has that meant so much to you being a captain? Um, I don’t know. I would I’m not going to say it mean that much to me at the end of the day cuz I still have respect for my teammates, you know? It’s it’s just they picking it too. So like it’s not like I’m going around being like y’all pick me for captain and stuff like that. So like I never really I never really had a desire to really want to be a captain cuz I know I’m a I’m a I’m a quiet guy. I like to sit back and observe stuff. So um but I I didn’t really mind being captain, you know. So, I mean, I just took it and and ran with it. There’s been a lot of talk about Joe Burrow will come back if the team wins the next couple. He might not. If they don’t, you know, Joe really well. What do you think Joe wants to do regardless of what happens the next two, three weeks? I’m pretty sure Joe wants to be out there. We could look at preseason game. He was out there in preseason game. So, he wants to be out there. Do you think he’s Do you think he’s a little crazy in some ways? Yeah. Not a little. Yeah. It just I mean people see him rehab over and over again the way it’s been and how aggressive he is and then here he is and he’s he’s almost back already. I mean is it mind-blowing to you? Pretty much a little bit. It was pretty fast. I didn’t I didn’t expect it to be so fast. Um when I seen him getting dressed for practice, my first when I seen that, my first thing in my head was I just remember telling y’all like he need to go get ready for to come back and He’s already back. So it happens fast. Blink of an eye. I can say that. So his competitive nature makes him crazy. Other things as well. All of it. I think his personality makes him unique. Um the way he approaches the game makes him crazy. How much he loves the game makes him crazy. That’s that’s how much passion he has behind it. And nothing’s wrong with that. He just wants to win. And you know, you need people around you like that. You were one of the ones that was vocal in 23 about him taking his time to come back off the calf. He came back early anyways. uh this time around, do you give him any extra advice about hey uh how to handle it or I mean how Patrick been through before? How do you deal with it? Uh I ain’t gonna say nothing. I’m I I ain’t mad about what he’s doing, how he’s doing it. At the end of the day, um at the end of the day, when stuff like that happens, I’m trying to look out for my brother. You know what I’m saying? At the end of the day, we all have a say so on how we want to go about continuing process from an injury. So, um I’m just being a brother and giving on positive energy. Have you seen things this year Jamar defensively uh that you have not seen before? Uh no, not really. Casey did a lot of stuff if I’m being honest. Casey did a lot of stuff. So I want I want to say shout to Casey for showing me a lot. So Joe Flacker was talking yesterday telling us that he has seen things this year with you and T double double that he has never seen before. Very unusual. No, Casey did everything first. 100%. Yeah, they threw everything at us first. You’re going up all these, you know, lists. I know you don’t look really care, but you’re going up all these, you know, these names past. Are there any of these great receivers that you mentioned with that kind of preview that you never saw that you keep, you know, heard something about them? Want to know something more about anything that kind of put me on spot right now, but um I mean, not really. I mean, I grew up watching highlight tapes all day. I never had a chance to look at to have a conversation with a professional athlete growing up. So I I don’t I never wanted to put myself in that position because I never had a chance to. So I never I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind asking like Keen and Allan some questions. You know what I’m saying? Say is there a guy you’d like to have lunch with? I mean there a I wouldn’t want to go to lunch with them. No. I just want to sit down in the film room watch some film though. Yeah. I wouldn’t mind doing that but Kenan Allen’s a guy. He would be one of the guys though. Yeah. Anybody else? Cooper Cup. Yeah. Well, you played against Cup. Yeah, but it’s a little different when you playing against him and cuz when you playing against him, you majority of time you trying to watch the defense, not him. So, it’s like you watching him, but you watching the defense, too.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is preparing for another AFC North showdown vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers. Chase talks about the matchup and the mindset of the Bengals’ offense preparing with Joe Flacco. Plus, Chase shares his initial reaction to Joe Burrow returning to practice and more.

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