2022 Super Bowl: Ja'Marr Chase laughs off drop issues from the preseason: 'I knew what I could do'

Chase wasn't letting drops plague him from his pursuit of records

After the historic rookie season Ja'Marr Chase put up for the Cincinnati bengals, it's easy to forget the talented wide receiver actually had a preseason full of dropped passes. 

Don't worry. Chase actually forgot about it too. 

"I knew what I could do already," Chase said on Super Bowl LVI media day/opening night (click here for live updates). "I'm not really worried about too much. As long as I play my game, make sure no one is trying to take me out and distract me. That's my main focus, make sure I'm doing my job."

The Bengals went out of their way to defend Chase and his several drops in the preseason, which he faced head on until the start of the regular season. Chase actually said he was going to "make (Joe Burrow) look good" as the regular season progressed. 

The Bengals wide receiver certainly pulled that off. Chase finished with 81 catches for 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season, averaging 18.0 yards per catch. Chase finished fourth in the NFL in receiving yards, third in receiving touchdowns, and second in yards per catch. His 279 receiving yards in the postseason are the most by a rookie in NFL playoff history and his 1,741 combined receiving yards in the regular season and postseason are the most by any rookie in league history. 

Chase also had eight receiving touchdowns of 30-plus yards, the most by any player since Jordy Nelson in 2011 and double the amount of the four players tied for second on the list. 

Chase said he caught roughly 40 tennis balls a day in order to improve his hand-eye coordination in the preseason to fix the issue. The hard work clearly paid off.