Ja’Marr Chase meets old friend Justin Jefferson in Saturday’s game (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Channel 9 and NFL Network) at Paycor Stadium that pits the two best wide receivers in the league as a sidebar in a 7-6 interconference playoff skirmish between Chase’s Bengals and Jefferson’s Vikings.
At least that’s how Chase sees it.
After confirming he’ll play following Wednesday’s limited practice with an ankle issue, Chase said he’s the NFL’s No. 1 receiver and Jefferson, his former LSU teammate and stat soulmate, is No. 2.
“I’m always going to put myself first,” Chase said. “He’s so quick, he’s so explosive. You watch film and he makes it look so easy. We probably can do the same move, but just because he’s twitchier, and more explosive sometimes on some routes, he just has that look in his routes that just makes defenders fly.”
The numbers can get kind of eerie. After both helped Joe Burrow win the Heisman Trophy in LSU’s undefeated 2019 season, Jefferson went to the Vikes and set the NFL rookie record with 1,400 yards in 2020. After Chase sat out that year, he smashed Jefferson’s record with 1,455 yards in 2021. The first 101 came in the only NFL game they’ve met, also Chase’s debut, when the Bengals beat Minnesota on the last play of overtime in the ’21 opener.
Since then, they’ve been chasing (sorry about the pun) the same decimal points. A few weeks ago, Chase joined Jefferson, Randy Moss, and Odell Beckham Jr. as the only players in NFL history to average at least 80 yards per game in each of their first three seasons.
Jefferson has the most yards anyone caught in their first two seasons, Chase is fifth on the list. Jefferson has the most in the first three seasons (Chase can’t catch him after missing four games last season), and if Jefferson gets 90 yards Saturday he’ll have the most in anyone’s first four seasons.
Meanwhile, Chase leads the NFL in 50-yard touchdown catches since he came into the league with the…
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