It’s a pretty well-known fact that the Cincinnati Bengals and star wideout Ja’Marr Chase won’t resume contract extension talks until next offseason.
Cincinnati doesn’t generally talk contracts ever midseason and things got pretty messy between the team and Chase during chats this past summer.
But Chase is on an epic tear this season, and even his agent publicly comments on how easy he’s making things for negotiations, so it has opened the door for some fresh outside ideas about the whole sage.
Take, former NFL wideout Torrey Smith, who just wrote the following after Chase’s 264 yards and three touchdowns during last week’s loss to Baltimore: “Ja’Marr Chase shouldn’t even play next week without an extension.”
While it likely wouldn’t happen for various reasons, Chase does happen to be the guy who sat out the final year of his collegiate career and it didn’t hurt his draft stock or pro performance even a bit.
At this point, Chase has bumped his asking price on the market in a big way and his happening to miss the rest of the season wouldn’t change that now.
Again, unlikely, but it will be interesting to see what happens if the Bengals keep losing and how many times he’ll be willing to risk his long-term health and market-resetting extension during a lost season.