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The Cinnciatti Bengals are favorites to win the repeat as AFC North champions and are expected to be among to top challengers to the Kansas City Chiefs for league supremacy and championship legitimacy in 2023.
A lot of their hopes and dreams of realizing their goals as a team rest on the right arm of Pro Bowl quarterback Joe Burrow. However, in a recent column, NFL.com’s Eric Edholm wrote that two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase will be the team’s most valuable player excluding the quarterback position for the 2023 season.
“In the NFL’s modern era, only two receivers — Odell Beckham Jr. and Justin Jefferson — have averaged more receiving yards per game in their first 29 career contests than Chase’s 86.2,” he wrote. “Over the past two seasons, Chase has accounted for four more TD catches (22) than Jefferson (18), despite appearing in five fewer games in that span.”
While Edholm acknowledged that the Bengals were able to go 3-1 when Chase missed four games in the middle of last season, he also pointed out that “those games came against four non-playoff teams.” When the team faces the stiffest competition, the fifth-overall pick in 2021 rises to the occasion and performs at his best in clutch moments.
The Bengals play in arguably the fiercest division in the entire league where all four teams have realistic chances to be playoff contenders. They will need their top pick from two years ago to continue his upward trajectory as they look to keep their stranglehold on the division crown and hopefully return to the Super Bowl after coming up just short of making it back last year.
“The Bengals’ AFC North opponents arguably are worse at cornerback now than they’ve been the past two seasons, and it’s possible Cincinnati’s offense is even more pass-dependent in 2023 than it has been, depending on how the team feels about the future of Joe Mixon and the other running backs,” Edholm wrote. “Joe Burrow could lean on Chase to an even greater degree than he has so far,” Edholm wrote.
Pro Bowl Pass Rusher Was Almost the First Choice
Prior to landing on Chase as the pick for the Bengals’ 2023 non-quarterback MVP, Edholm considered naming the team’s best defender on what has been one of the best defenses in the league at slowing down high-powered offenses.
“I considered defensive end Trey Hendrickson as a very realistic option here. In the end, though, Chase is an elite difference-maker,” he wrote.
The six-year veteran has been a consistently disruptive force off the edge since breaking out in his final season with the New Orleans Saints in 2020. In his first two years with the Bengals, he has led the team in sacks both seasons with 22 combined which is already more than the 20 he had in his first four years in the league per Pro Football Reference.
He has formed one of the most complete yet underrated edge defender tandems in the league with local product Sam Hubbard. With the addition of first-rounder Miles Murphy coupled with the continued maturation of youngsters like Joseph Ossai and Cameron Sample, the 28-year-old could be poised for his best season to date and will continue to be one of if not the main catalysts for the team to succeed on that side of the ball.
Ja’Marr Chase Named to Top Youngsters List
Last week, Edholm’s NFL.com colleague and fellow analyst, Nick Shook, had the 23-year-old Chase included on his 2023 NFL All-Under-25 Team after he followed up a sensational rookie season with a strong second year despite dealing with a minor injury.
“Last season was a down year for Chase, based on the standard he set as a rookie in 2021. A 1,046-yard, nine-touchdown season still isn’t anything to scoff at, though,” he wrote.”He has now reached 1,000 yards in consecutive campaigns.”
According to Pro Football Reference, Chase led the team across the board with 87 catches on 134 targets for 1,046 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in just 12 games. As long as missing a handful of games due to injury doesn’t become the norm for the star wideout, Shook “expects him to be among the game’s elites for quite some time.”
“He did it in 2022 while dealing with a nagging hip injury that cost him four games, yet he still led the AFC North-champion Bengals in receptions and receiving yards,” he wrote.
This could potentially be the last year that their offense can proudly boast that they have the best trio of wide receivers in the league since fourth-year pro Tee Higgins and seven-year veteran Tyler Boyd are entering the final year of their respective deals.
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