The Cincinnati Bengals fanbase has likely accepted the fact that Joe Burrow is a top-five quarterback without a legitimate claim to the title of QB1 across the NFL for the time being, but one bridge that is too far for this group to cross is downplaying the exploits of star wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase.
Declaring the former top pick the league's No. 1 wide receiver after leading the NFL in catches (127), yards (1,708), and touchdowns (17) in the 2024 season seems like a no-doubt statement, right? Wrong! Pro Football Focus believes that Eagles star AJ Brown somehow ranks above Chase.
PFF had the unmitigated gall to rank Chase as the third-best receiver in the NFL, finding himself behind both Brown and Justin Jefferson in the No. 2 spot. This is an outrage, as it was literally impossible for Chase to provide any more statistical evidence that he is the best at his craft in this game.
Chase's 2024 season should have removed all doubt from the debate of the game's best wide receiver, but it appears as though PFF is committed to fighting a losing battle by pushing Brown over Chase based on their own internal grading metric.
PFF unbelievably ranks AJ Brown over Bengals' Ja'Marr Chase in wide receiver rankings
The only player who makes sense to rank over Chase at this point is his old teammate Jefferson, who is currently on pace to set a record for receiving yards per game. Even with that, Chase's recent surge last year has to count for something. From a statistical point of view, Chase has Brown beat clearly.
Brown is terrific, and he has an inferior quarterback when compared against Burrow, but Chase's 2024 season was one of the best years any receiver has ever had in NFL history. If that isn't enough to put him at the top of PFF's rankings, he might never reach the top of this hypothetical list.
As long as Burrow is under center and Tee Higgins is productive enough to draw some defensive attention away from the $40 million man, Chase is going to be one of the best pass-catchers in the game, if not the outright best. Perhaps another All-Pro triple crown season might be enough to change hearts and minds.
