CINCINNATI — Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase praised Jaguars star rookie Travis Hunter on Thursday.
“He’s just a pure athlete,” Chase said. “He’s mad athletic.”
The Jaguars took him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It sounds like Hunter is going to play more corner against the Bengals after logging just six snaps on defense last week.
That means Chase may have to deal with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. He made it clear that Hunter is going to need to prove himself at the NFL level.
“It don’t matter who the corner is,” Chase said. “If I’m looking at Travis Hunter tape and I’m looking at Denzel (Ward) tape, I’m going to look at more Denzel tape than Travis Hunter tape, just because Denzel is an All-Pro corner. I’m not saying he (Hunter) won’t be one, but it’s a little different. Right now he’s still a rookie. But he’s a pure athlete, man. He can do it all. I still got respect for him. I got to go out there and just play my game.”
Hunter had six receptions for 33 yards in the Jaguars Week 1 win over the Panthers. He also played six snaps at cornerback. He was on the field for 42 offensive snaps.
Bounce Back Coming?
Meanwhile, the Bengals’ offense is hoping to bounce back this week. They only scored 17 points in their Week 1 win over Cleveland and couldn’t move the ball in the second half. Chase only had two receptions for 26 yards in the victory.
“We want to hold ourselves to a better performance than last week,” Chase said. “Just coming out and being ourselves. Everybody knows we’re a great offense, prolific offense, so we just got to hold ourselves to it every week.”
The Bengals play the Jaguars on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at Paycor Stadium. They’ve won their past three matchups against Jacksonville, including a 24-21 win in Week 4 of the 2021 season—Chase’s rookie campaign. Cincinnati started the year 3-1 and ultimately played in Super Bowl LVI.
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