Ja'Marr Chase Eager To Shoulder Bigger Offensive For Bengals Without Joe Burrow

 Ja'Marr Chase took to the podium on Thursday, ready to roll into the Bengals' action against Minnesota this weekend. Chase is taking over a bigger production and leadership role over the next few months.

He's ready for the challenge after Joe Burrow went down with a major turf toe injury this past Sunday.

"I still want to be myself, and then they still want to be my authentic self, but also want to speak up more, I'm not gonna say that was Joe's job, but that was more of his role," Chase said. "I want to say, just being a leader, more of a vocal leader, really, like Zac [Taylor] told me at the beginning of the year. And now this is the moment where, you know, I have to speak up a little bit, just let the guys know, like we got to make sure we're on top of it today, Friday, and Sunday, any day."

Chase produced very well on Sunday, topping out at 14 catches for 165 yards and one score.

A good sign he can improve on 13.2 yards per catch and one touchdown with Jake Browning in 2023.

"It's pretty similar to Joe," Chase said about adjusting to Browning. "I mean, we're really just getting used to the timing with him, getting used to the speed with him, because we really haven't had that many reps in camp with him, so it was just catching up on speed."

The Bengals could get Burrow back in mid to late December following news he's aiming to have surgery on the grade-three turf toe this weekend.

Crazier things have happened than Cincinnati staying above water in the wide-open AFC playoff race until he can return for the final couple of weeks.

It's a long path there that starts back up again Sunday.

"It's an opinion," Chase said about the outside doubt after Burrow's injury. "I mean, everybody has an opinion. We really don't care. It's outside noise. We gotta worry about what's in our locker room. Control what we can control, and that's how we're gonna win games."