The Bengals' high-flying offense could be taking a step back over the next few weeks as Ja'Marr Chase is expected to miss some time due to a hip injury. Although it's unclear how long Chase will be out, the All-Pro wide receiver will miss Monday night's game against the Cleveland Browns and could miss several more weeks.
The injury was expected to sideline the Bengals star 4-6 weeks, but head coach Zac Taylor confirmed Saturday that Chase will not be placed on injured reserve. Instead, he'll remain on the active roster as he rehabs his hip injury. It's an optimistic sign Chase could return sooner than anticipated as a player on IR must sit for at least four weeks. Chase remaining on the active roster could mean he is expected to be ready to go in less time.
This is a devastating injury for a Bengals offense starting to find its footing over the past few weeks after a slow start to the season. The Bengals have won four of their past five games, and a big reason for that is because of Chase, who has absolute gone off over the past two weeks, with at least 130 receiving yards and two touchdowns in each game, which were both Bengals wins.
The 2021 Offensive Rookie of the Year originally injured the hip in Week 6 against the Saints. During that 30-26 win, Chase caught seven passes for 132 yards, including a 60-yard game-winning touchdown that came with under two minutes to play. In the days after that game, Chase showed up on the injury report for the first time all season and he even sat out of the team's Wednesday practice in the lead up to their Week 7 game against the Falcons.
Against Atlanta, Chase caught eight passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns. However, he did most of his damage in the first half, which is notable, because he appeared to reinjure his hip with just 20 seconds to go until halftime.
Although Chase returned to the game in the second half, he wasn't very active.
The absence of Chase means that Taylor is going to have to completely revamp the Bengals offense. The Bengals have the weapons to succeed without Chase, but there's no guarantee that will happen. One thing the Bengals will need to lean on in Chase's absence is Joe Mixon and the running game, but that could be trouble, because the ground game has been nonexistent this year (The Bengals are averaging just 87.4 yards per game on the ground, which is fifth-worst in the NFL).
If you're looking at the Bengals passing game, Joe Burrow threw 27% of his passes (74 targets in 270 attempts) to Chase this year and those are going to have to go somewhere else. The good news for the Bengals is that Burrow does have good chemistry with the rest of his receivers. Although Chase leads the team with 605 receiving yards, both Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd are right behind him with 455 yards each. Those will be the two guys who will have to pick up the slack because Burrow is definitely going to be looking their way with Chase out.
Also, Mixon (182) and Hayden Hurst (226) both have more than 180 receiving yards on the season.
It's going to be an uphill battle for the Bengals offense, but they have several winnable games in the next few weeks (at Browns, Panthers, BYE, at Steelers, at Titans) and with the way their defense has been playing, the defending AFC champions might be able to weather the storm of Chase's absence.
The Bengals were a shade over 50% to make the playoffs with Chase in the lineup but if he were to miss six weeks, their postseason possibilities decrease to under 44%, according to CBS Sports data scientist Stephen Oh.
