The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver room was in the spotlight a little more than usual this week because of celebration fines and injury, but the team will be hoping the play of Ja\u2019Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and others Sunday, Sept. 27, at Pittsburgh is more attention-worthy.<\/p>\n
As the Bengals spent time this week addressing how to replace injured No. 3 receiver Andrei Iosivas, top weapons Chase and Higgins learned they had received fines totaling almost $90,000 for six \u201coffensive gesture\u201d celebrations over the first two games.<\/p>\n
Chase said they were doing a version of The Rock\u2019s \u201cPeople\u2019s Elbow\u201d in WWE. Both can afford the fines, but Chase said he would love to appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is where the superstars have to get in with the NFLPA and fight for our money because if (San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk) is getting fined for doing a drinking gesture, a juice gesture, then I mean, I’m getting fined for an elbow and doing the first down thing,\u201d Chase said. \u201cI mean, I can’t really do much about it. I mean, we could complain. I don’t even think we can tweet about it because we get fined for tweeting about it. So, it’s really like players got to keep their mouth shut and deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’marr Chase (1) catches a pass for a touchdown as Houston Texans safety Reed Blankenship, behind, and safety Calen Bullock (2) try to defend during the second half of an NFL football game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis – AP<\/p>\n
Asked if he and Higgins will stop doing the celebration, Chase said he didn\u2019t know yet because it wasn\u2019t the gesture others thought it was. He wondered if they could just tweak it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something different for us, something new, something we were trying to be unique with, and they just stopping the fun,\u201d Chase said. \u201cSo, it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase did the celebration after both of his touchdowns last week at Houston, one of which arguably was the best play of his career after stumbling, twisting and making an acrobatic catch while dragging his feet in the front corner of the end zone.<\/p>\n
When asked about the play, Chase said he didn\u2019t have an opinion on where that stacks up among all-time great catches. He just cares that he scored.<\/p>\n
The Bengals can almost always expect something great from Chase and Higgins, but now they will also be leaning on more from guys like rookie Colbie Young and Dohnte Meyers to step up in Iosivas\u2019 spot. Iosivas tore a thumb ligament Sunday at Houston and underwent surgery Wednesday, which will keep him out at least four weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral guys that can step up, whether it’s in the receiver room, tight end room,\u201d Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. \u201cThere’s a lot of ways we’re going to fulfill that, but we have guys that will step up. They’re going to be given more opportunity and expect those guys to step up and fill those shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Iosivas had just three catches for 19 yards on four targets through the first two games, the Bengals knew what they could get from him as a veteran contributor. Quarterback Joe Burrow had built trust in Iosivas over the last three seasons and is just getting to know Young and Meyers.<\/p>\n
Young made his first career catch last week and said he\u2019s ready for more responsibility if called upon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve always been staying ready, waiting for my number to be called, so right now it’s that time to step up in his place,\u201d Young said. \u201cHe had a big role in this offense, so I got to be able to maintain that. I’ve been preparing for this my whole career so far, so I’m ready to go to work. Like I said, it’s so unfortunate that he’s down, and I’m praying for him and a speedy recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cincinnati is ready to test a banged-up Steelers secondary. Cornerback Jamel Dean has been limited by an ankle injury this week, and Joey Porter Jr. has been limited due to conditioning issues that caused him to miss the first two games.<\/p>\n
Nickel corner Jalen Ramsey is good to go, but Chase said there\u2019s more to Pittsburgh\u2019s defense to be concerned about than just the corners he could match up with Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t really watch too much of the corners because the majority of the time it’s a whole unit as a defense I got to read, but I’m going to look at those guys,\u201d Chase said. \u201cI still got to respect the game and look at them a little bit, but at the end of the day, I still got to adjust to what’s out there and what they’re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burrow said he just needs receivers who will work hard, make plays and especially win 50\/50 balls. He knows he can count on Chase and Higgins for all of that, but others are capable. He looks forward to seeing who can rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity to be seized, and I think this is the deepest we\u2019ve been in that room for a while,\u201d Burrow said. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019ve been deep in years past, too, but we have so many guys that we feel good about putting out there: Dohnte, Colbie, Ke\u2019Shawn (Williams). I feel good about all those guys going in there and performing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja\u2019marr Chase (1) celebrates after catching a pass for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ashley Landis) Ashley Landis<\/p>\n
Bengals Texans Football<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver room was in the spotlight a little more than usual this week because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1010193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,7,6],"class_list":["post-1010192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117330559012235321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}