Ja'Marr Chase makes feelings clear on contract situation despite Bengals stance

Ja’Marr Chase appears to have made his feelings regarding his Cincinnati Bengals contract evidently clear after he skipped practice .

The NFL off-season has seen record-breaking contract extensions handed out to some top-tier talent and it seems that the Bengals’ wide receiver also wants in on the bumper paydays. Chase showed up late to practice on Wednesday wearing street clothes and didn’t take part in the session.

Chase is said to want a new deal that would make him the highest-paid receiver in NFL history. His reported demands would top the $140million contract that Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson penned in June.

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Bengals coach Zac Taylor said less than 24 hours before Chase failed to participate in training that he would continue to practice this week. Taylor spoke to reporters on Wednesday where he admitted that he probably spoke too soon on the 24-year-old’s situation.

"I think I probably put my foot in my mouth speaking too quickly," Taylor said. "Again, this is a day-to-day situation. We'll just keep seeing it as that."

Taylor confirmed that Chase remains healthy and has been since the start of the team’s mandatory minicamp in July, though he didn’t practice then either. Chase has two years left on his rookie contract, including a fifth-year option worth $21.8m in 2025.

Chase’s demands aren’t to blow Jefferson’s deal out of the water but he either wants to match the figure or incredibly even surpass it by a single cent just so he can hold the record for himself. The two were teammates at LSU and the competitiveness between them appears not to have diminished over time.

The Bengals and Chase are still in discussions over a long-term extension, with Justin Jefferson's deal setting the benchmark. A conclusion to the standoff could come soon after Bengals owner Mike Brown appeared to give away the negotiation standpoint the team had.

He said in July: "He's a key player next to Joe [Burrow]. He's our next one. He knows that. We know it. This may take a while. We are going to bend over backwards to get it done. I can't tell you when."

But with just ten days to go until the Bengals open their campaign against the New England Patriots, Brown said new terms for Chase wouldn’t be likely before the start of the season. "It's not so likely that this is the good time to negotiate," Brown said.

"The offseason is a better time for that and we're going to try to keep focused on the football part. I'm not going to rule anything out, but I will tell you that the die has probably been cast."