Ja'Marr Chase contract, 'hold in' situation updated by NFL insider

A day after Cincinnati Bengals wider receiver Ja’Marr Chase practiced with the team for the first time this summer, an NFL insider has updated the contract outlook.

As expected, it has to do with Justin Jefferson, Brandon Aiyuk and CeeDee Lamb.

According to The 33rd Team’s Ari Meirov, Chase’s camp is waiting for the leverage provided by those other players signing extensions of their own.

“They are still talking on an extension, they are still ongoing, Meirov said. “The hope from Ja’Marr’s side is that they are able to reach a long-term deal and frankly, the way they look at it…if CeeDee or Aiyuk get done and those are in the Justin Jefferson neighborhood, they feel pretty confident that the Bengals are going to have their hands tied.”

This is what we’ve written from the beginning — Chase has two years left on his deal and Jefferson resetting the market sped up the process. He deserves to be at the very top, so the idea he’ll want to leapfrog both Aiyuk and Lamb is obvious.

As fans have seen themselves, Meirov notes that Chase has been a “class act through all of this” during camp. He also says that, at least for now, Chase will practice but potentially remain out of 11s.

Luckily for Chase, he doesn’t need all that much leverage in negotiations. As we stress always, Bengals president Mike Brown has already said, to paraphrase, that the team will “bend over backward” on the extension to keep him with Joe Burrow.

So again, Chase is playing the waiting game while looking at the market. If the two other big names get done before the season, he might, too. Otherwise, the big extension will happen next summer.