Bengals Receivers and Tight Ends Position Preview: Ja'Marr Chase Leads the Way With Plenty of Talent Behind Him

Cincinnati's pass catchers are arguably the best in the NFL.

Author:
Mike Santagata
Publish date:
Aug 4, 2022 8:45 AM EDT

In this story:

The pass catchers for the Bengals are the most talented unit on the team. There is a legitimate argument that they are not only the best pass catching unit in the division, but in the entire NFL. It's clearly a group that the Bengals have tried to build with premium talent shown by the 2 former first round picks and 3 former second round picks.

With an extremely talented quarterback like Joe Burrow throwing them the ball, this group should realize their astronomical potential. If the Bengals want to win the number one seed in the AFC and repeat the success of last season, they will need the passing offense to take the next step. With this group of guys, it's possible they become one of the most deadly offenses in the NFL.

X Wide Receiver

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (1) celebrates a catch in the 1st quarter during Super Bowl 56, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Nfl Super Bowl 56 Los Angeles Rams Vs Cincinnati Bengals Feb 13 2022 582622 — © Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Really placing the Bengals outside guys into X and Z roles is pointless because they are interchangeable, but when it comes to the Bengals' wide receiver room, there’s no one more important to this offense than Ja'Marr Chase.

The reigning Rookie of the Year often does the stuff you would expect an X wide receiver to do. He is typically on the backside of trips and bunch formations so that he can be isolated against the other team’s corner. While he is split wide in that isolation scenario, he is also running a ton of vertical routes.

Chase is coming off of a season in which he caught 81 passes for 1455 yards and 13 touchdowns. That comes in as a franchise record in yardage and tied him for the second most touchdowns in franchise history. After removing players with less than 15 targets in a season, Chase’s 11.4 yards per target were the most in franchise history. Despite the fantastic history of wide receivers for the Bengals, Chase’s rookie year has a strong case as the best in their 55 year history and he's just getting started.

What Makes Him Special

The traits that really stand out are Chase's body control and tracking. He can contort his body in insane ways to make circus catches. His body control makes him one of the best receivers in the league at the back-shoulder fade.

What really makes Chase so deadly is that he’s also an elite deep threat. That threat comes from his ability to track the ball. He does such an insanely good job tracking the ball that he can utilize late hands and eyes to not tip the defender off to the ball. When you consider the ability as a deep threat combined with his body control on the back-shoulder fade, you can easily see why Chase had the season that he had. If he's singled up, putting him on a go route with a back-shoulder option he is practically unguardable. This is exactly what the Bengals do when they run one of their favorite concepts in 989/doubles.

Areas For Improvement

Chase still has concentration drop issues at times. The main one that comes to mind is the bobbled ball that ended up as an interception against the Chargers. He’s young, so there’s plenty of hope for him to improve in this area but it was an issue. It doesn’t seem to be an actual hands issue on the drops because he does a great job at catching the ball outside of his frame. However, an improvement in consistency and concentration will take him from a top 5 receiver to maybe the best in the entire league.

Z Wide Receiver

Tee Higgins Training Camp — © Albert Cesare / The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Like X receiver, Z receiver almost has to be put in quotation marks because Tee Higgins is a prototypical X receiver and he plays that role fairly often. It’s just that the Bengals have another amazing X receiver in Chase, so Higgins has to play another spot half the time.

Higgins caught 74 passes for 1,091 yards and six touchdowns last season. He did that in only 14 games due to a shoulder injury. He improved upon his great rookie campaign in every statistic. He was more efficient at 9.9 yards per target, rather than 8.4, he caught more passes for more yards, and improved his catch percentage on targets. Overall it was a very promising sophomore season for the 23-year-old wide-out. If he can stay healthy this season I would expect him to improve upon those numbers once again in his third season.

What Makes Him Special

Higgins is a unique receiver due to his route running at his size. Higgins is ginormous at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds. Despite his size, the Bengals love to isolate him on the outside against cornerbacks and let him win with his change of direction and deceptive quickness. Obviously, he can also outmuscle corners and bully them at the catch point (he had the second most contested catches last season), but what’s rare is the ability to sink and win at the breakpoint at his size. The Bengals can utilize Higgins as a Z receiver at times because of this ability which in turn allows for Chase to do more as the X as well.

Areas For Improvement

Higgins needs to stay healthy for an entire year. He doesn't seem to be injury-prone or anything like that, but it would be nice to see if he can put together 17 healthy games. The Bengals could make a very large investment in the former second round pick soon. If he is able to remain healthy for the entire season, he should easily break his career highs in yardage and touchdowns which would make the investment easier on the Bengals' end.

Slot Receiver

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd (83) completes a catch during Cincinnati Bengals training camp practice, Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, at the practice fields next to Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Cincinnati Bengals Training Camp Aug 1 0052 — © Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Unlike Chase and Higgins, Tyler Boyd is set in his role. He is essentially a slot only receiver. He’s the reliable, sure-handed slot player that the Bengals can trust in third down and other short yardage situations.

Boyd didn’t have his best statistical year in 2021, but that’s easily explained by the amount of talent that the Bengals have brought in at wide receiver to work with him these past two years. Even as the third target, Boyd hauled in 67 passes for 828 yards and five touchdowns. He didn't have a drop during the regular season and posted good efficiency numbers on the year such as his 8.8 yards per target. That’s a great number as a slot receiver. For reference, Hunter Renfrow was only at 8.1 yards per target last season, although it was on higher volume. He caught over 70% of his targets and he even threw a ball to Mixon that was taken 46 yards. Overall, Boyd is the unsung hero of the Bengals offense.

What makes Him Special

More than his sure hands, I would say Boyd’s ability to set up his routes, change tempo, and short area quickness creates such a great slot receiver. He does a fantastic job before the break with hesitation moves, skips, and other tempo setups to slow the defense down while gaining ground. Then he’s quick on his break which is such a drastic shift that it creates separation for him. He’s also an intelligent receiver who almost always makes the right choice on option routes.

Areas For Improvement

The main area I would like to see Boyd improve is his chemistry with Joe Burrow. Boyd and Burrow didn’t connect on a juke route late in their loss to the Packers. Boyd sat while Burrow threw it as if he would break in and it ended in an interception that lost the Bengals the game in overtime. They cut juke out of the playbook for a while because of it. In the Super Bowl, Boyd misread the defender's leverage on a choice route leading to another missed opportunity. I would like to see them with more of a mind meld next season so that these mistakes do not occur.

Other Notable Names

Stanley Morgan is essentially the Bengals fullback and will see plenty of run with the team this season. They love to utilize him as the lead blocker on windback concepts. Mike Thomas could be the next man up at receiver. He’s made some plays and flashed over the past couple of seasons, including a touchdown against Cleveland in 2020. Trenton Irwin might see some run at wide receiver as well if there are any injuries. Trent Taylor has a shot to make the team as a return man. There are also some undrafted guys that are hoping to push one of the veterans off the roster. Jaivon Heiligh and Kwamie Lassiter II are the two biggest names. They need to make an impact on special teams to make the active roster.

Tight End

Hayden Hurst is a former first round pick by the Baltimore Ravens and he never really got a shot there because they also landed Mark Anders in the same draft.

Still playing behind Andrews, Hurst was able to manage a good year in 2019, where he was efficient (8.9 yards per target) catching 30 out of 39 targets. It was also the peak in terms of his Pro Football Focus grade (74.1). All of this led to him being traded to Atlanta in exchange for essentially a second round pick.

He had his best volume numbers of his career with the Falcons, although the efficiency went down. He caught 56 passes for 571 yards and six touchdowns in 2020: all career highs for the former first round pick. The issue was that the team was bad enough to draft Kyle Pitts with the fourth selection, making Hurst the second tight end on a team. Last year was fine for him, but hard to compare statistically to the prior season. He looks similar to how he did in 2019 and 2020 on film, but he wasn’t given the same opportunity as those seasons. In Cincinnati, he should see around 800 snaps which he has never been able to hit in his previous seasons. He has an opportunity this season to turn his career from a fringe starter into a stud this season.

What Makes Him Special

At 6-foot-4, 260 pounds, Hurst is not a small player by any means. What drove him to be a first round pick was his size in conjunction with his athleticism. This combination can create mismatch nightmare scenarios for the defense. He can actually stretch the field vertically as a tight end. That should help the Bengals get their extremely talented wide receivers in space. Not only can he use this athleticism to work down the field, but it also gives him good YAC opportunities. He’s at his best in that area when he is just putting his head down and trying to gain additional yardage. Sometimes he runs into trouble where he wants to hurdle guys which is almost never the correct move.

Areas For Improvement

If Hurst wants to take the next step as a tight end, he needs to improve his blocking this season. If he can become a better blocker on the line, then he can stay on the field more. He’s pretty good at sift blocks where he works across the line of scrimmage and cut blocks where he takes out defenders from underneath. He struggles with pass blocking, combination blocks, and most one-on-one run blocks. If he can improve even two out of these three areas, he should be seen as more of a well rounded tight end. If defenses respect him enough as a blocker, he will see matchups against linebackers in coverage rather than matchups against defensive backs.

Other Notable Names

The Bengals former second round pick Drew Sample is the main name to know other than Hurst. He's a blocking specialist whose receiving game never came along. If Hurst doesn't take the next step as a blocking tight end, Sample will play an important role in short yardage situations and other obvious run situations.

Mitchell Wilcox is more important as a special teams player than a tight end, but he is in the driver’s seat for the third tight end spot. Without an injury, he won’t factor into the offense very much. Thaddeus Moss is the son of legendary wide receiver Randy Moss. He’s a fan favorite, but he will need to push Wilcox on special teams if he's going to push for a roster spot. Like Wilcox, he probably won't be a factor on offense without an injury, but he does have a legitimate shot to make the team.

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