Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase set some massive goals for his 2023 season.
Those goals aren’t too unbelievable. As a rookie, Chase had said he wants to smash rookie franchise records and did, breaking Chad Johnson’s rookie receiving record (1,455 yards).
One thing that will help Chase in his pursuit of more franchise records?
Winning Offensive Player of the Year honors, which is something Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr predicts he’ll do next season:
If you think about it, this award has such a narrow scope. At the beginning of any season, someone could reasonably assume that anyone on offense could win this award. But really, it’s a select list of offensive players whose functioning is essential to the system, who can put up a large enough statistical sample size to impress voters. That leaves Chase, Justin Jefferson (who we may assume will see a slight decline in production given the addition of another first-round pick at the position, and defenses generally being sick of getting demolished by him), Cooper Kupp, Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry and a small handful of others. Given that we are projecting Burrow’s production to continue skyward, so, too, will Chase’s.
Also in there? Joe Burrow winning MVP and the Bengals winning the Super Bowl.
Not a bad haul for the Bengals in the predictions department and not all that unreasonable for Chase specifically — he caught 87 passes last year over just 12 games.
With there being a chance the Bengals field their best offensive line to date, Chase might be a lock to go record-hunting next season, which might mean he earns some individual hardware, too.
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