Ja'Marr Chase viewed as scarier WR than Justin Jefferson by some in NFL

Justin Jefferson trails former college teammate Ja'Marr Chase by 144 yards for the NFL receiving lead through 11 weeks. With the Bengals on their bye this week, Jefferson can catch him on Sunday against the Bears, but he'll need his biggest game of the season to do it.

Chase is having a ridiculous 2024. He leads the league in all three triple crown receiving categories with a 73-1,056-12 line through 11 games, thanks to two absolutely massive performances against the Ravens. He's gone for 10-193-2 and 11-264-3 in a pair of narrow losses against Baltimore this season, ripping off all kinds of big plays in the process.

In discussing whether the Bengals will extend Chase this offseason, ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler dropped this interesting line in a new article:

"Though Justin Jefferson has been the consensus top receiver over the past two years, many scouts and coaches believe Chase strikes more fear in opponents because of his big-play ability."

Let's dive into that a little bit. Chase leads the league with four catches of at least 60 yards this season. All of them went for touchdowns, and three of the four came in those two games against the Ravens. No one else has more than two (Jefferson has one, a 97-yarder against the 49ers).

Since he came into the league in 2021, Chase leads all players with 12 catches of at least 60 yards. Jefferson has just two, which is half as many as K.J. Osborn and the same number as Jordan Addison.

But here's the thing: Why do you think Osborn and Addison were able to make those plays? Aside from Addison's 60-yarder against the 49ers last year when Jefferson was out, I'd bet it's because of the defensive attention No. 18 commands. As Kevin O'Connell pointed out this week, no one in the league gets defended like Jefferson does. No one.

"The thing that I just hope people understand, because I watch football around the league when we get the opportunity to, (is) that what he is playing against is different than what anybody else is playing against, week in and week out," O'Connell said to Paul Allen. "We have some phenomenal receivers in our league, we do, but I just hope people understand exactly what he plays against on a week in and week out basis.

"I promise you folks, it's not coach speak, it's real. If you play pickup basketball, head down to the gym and have three out of the five guys on the court cover you, that's basically what people attempt to do every single week, find new ways to do it. And Justin doesn't blink. We figure out ways and we work through it together, and he makes play after play for us when we need it."

That unique defensive attention has to be factored into the discussion when talking about the NFL's best receivers. It also doesn't hurt Chase that he gets to catch passes from Joe Burrow, who is regarded as a better quarterback than Kirk Cousins and certainly better than Sam Darnold and Nick Mullens, who have been Jefferson's QBs for his last 14 games (with a sprinkle of Josh Dobbs and Jaren Hall in there as well).

And yet, since 2021, Jefferson leads Chase in receptions (363 to 341), receiving yards (5,411 to 4,773) and 30-yard catches (36 to 34), despite playing two fewer games in that span.

It's true that Chase is the most dangerous big-play receiving threat in the NFL right now. He's a touchdown machine who has had two monstrous outings this year. But he's also had fewer than 80 receiving yards in seven of 11 games. Jefferson's season-high in yardage this year is 137, but he's only been below 80 twice in ten games.

If you want consistency, it's gotta be Jefferson, who still deserves to hold the crown as the best receiver in the league. As for which one is "scarier," well, that one seems to already be answered by the way teams defend Jefferson every single week.

Matthew Coller: Justin Jefferson broke a crazy record, why didn't anyone notice?