Ja’Marr Chase is sitting on a season that could push him into a class all his own.
The Bengals star already turned in a 2024 campaign that put him at 1,708 receiving yards, good for a triple crown season and a new career high. To get to the top of the NFL’s single-season receiving mountain, he’d need roughly 300 more yards to pass Calvin Johnson’s record of 1,964. That would make Chase the league’s first 2,000-yard receiver.
The path is easy to see. Chase averaged 9.8 yards per target in 2024, and a slight bump above 10, paired with healthy seasons from both him and Joe Burrow, could be enough to get him there. Cincinnati is also leaning into more diverse offensive schemes this season, which could create even more downfield chances for its top receiver.
NFL.com’s Raza Umerani put that exact idea at the center of his bold prediction for the 2026 season.
"The Bengals are going to let it fly more than any team in football, and Chase will be the focal point of that aerial attack," Umerani wrote. "If Joe Burrow stays healthy for the full season, this old Bayou connection will bear its juiciest fruit to date. Chase breaks Calvin Johnson's single-season record of 1,964 receiving yards, wins Offensive Player of the Year and makes his 2024 triple crown-winning campaign look like a walk in the park."
The target volume is what makes the whole thing feel realistic. Chase has led the league in targets in each of the past two seasons, finishing with 185 last year and 175 in 2024. If Cincinnati really does keep feeding him, a 200-plus target season is on the table, and that would put him in striking distance of another benchmark too.
Chase’s 2025 target total ranks 16th all-time. Rob Moore owns the record with 209 targets in 1997, while Johnson’s record-breaking 204-target season was fourth-most ever. In other words, Chase probably needs to clear the 200-target mark to have a real shot at the receiving yards record.
And if he gets that far, the rest of the hardware would likely follow. Umerani’s prediction has Chase winning his first NFL Offensive Player of the Year award, and it’s hard to argue with the logic if the Bengals offense is firing and the defense forces the team into enough shootouts again.
In Other News...
Cashius Howell Is Suddenly At Center Of Bengals Defensive Hype
Cashius Howell has quickly become one of the most talked-about names around the Bengals defense, and it is easy to see why. Cincinnati used the draft to reshape its front, dealing away its first-round pick to the Giants for Dexter Lawrence before spending its second-round selection on the Texas A&M edge rusher, who arrived with plenty of momentum after being named the 2025 SEC Defensive Player of the Year and a unanimous All-American.
The early buzz has only gotten louder since then, with CBS Sports analyst John Breech going so far as to project Howell as the 2026 Defensive Rookie of the Year and the Bengals as a playoff team. For a defense looking for impact players who can change the conversation, Howell is already being treated like much more than a mid-round addition, even if the real answer about how fast he can tilt games in Cincinnati still has to play out. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Have An Unexpected New Injury Concern Before Week 1
Week 1 practice brought one of those early-season reminders that the Bengals depth will be tested before the games even count. DJ Turner II showed up on the injury report with a hamstring issue and was limited, while JaMarr Chase and Tee Higgins were both back to full participation as they continue working through their own recoveries. For a team trying to build rhythm right away, getting its top receivers on the field matters, but the attention shifted quickly to the new concern in the secondary.
Zac Taylor also spent time updating the status of several players while talking through the bigger picture of continuity and situational football as the season opener approaches. Those are the kinds of details that tend to matter more once the first kickoff arrives, especially for a Bengals team hoping to avoid any early disruption in a unit that needs all its pieces ready. For now, the key question is how much Turners hamstring affects the week ahead and whether it lingers past the initial practice report. [Read more 🡒]
Ja'Marr Chase Sent Bengals Fans An Encouraging Message Before Sunday
Ja'Marr Chases return to full participation in practice comes with a little extra reassurance for Bengals fans who watched him deal with a minor knee hyperextension last month. Entering the 2026 season, the star receiver said he feels fully healthy again, and he struck a confident tone about both his body and the energy around the team as preparations move toward opening weekend.
The timing of the schedule is one thing Chase clearly did not hide his opinion on, since he said he would rather not be dealing with 1 p.m. starts. But the bigger takeaway for Cincinnati is simpler: its top pass-catching threat sounds ready to go, and after a brief scare in the summer, that is the sort of update that matters most this time of year. [Read more 🡒]