The Ja’Marr Chase saga took an interesting turn today. After returning to practice earlier this week, the Bengals wideout didn’t participate in today’s session. Per Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic, Chase was spotted at the team facility wearing only street clothes. ESPN’s Ben Baby confirms that Chase did not practice with the team today. This development comes 24 hours after coach Zac Taylor said he expected his star wideout to practice fully on Wednesday and Thursday.
After staging a training camp hold-in in pursuit of a new contract, Chase seemed to abandon his stance this week. The receiver participated in lighter practices to begin the week, and Taylor even told reporters yesterday that his star player was expected to suit up for Week 1.
Things took a turn today. With the Bengals preparing for “a more traditional game week practice” (per Baby), Chase was on the sideline. Taylor later walked back his previous comments about Chase’s practice availability, noting that he likely spoke “too quickly” while declaring the receiver day-to-day (although the coach also acknowledged that Chase is completely healthy).
“I think every day is a new day. We’ll keep working through it,” Taylor said (via NFL.com’s Nick Shook). “I am not going to make any predictions to what tomorrow brings. At the end of the day, Ja’Marr is a great dude that means a lot to this team, and we’ll just continue to take it day to day.”
While the Bengals have continually expressed interest in extending Chase, the front office is in no rush to hand him a lucrative new contract with two years remaining on the current deal. Chase doesn’t have a whole lot of leverage besides protecting his health and staying off the practice field, but one of the sides will eventually have to blink if the receiver is going to play in Week 1.