Ja'Marr Chase follows Joe Burrow with stern message to Bengals

1 week ago 2

Cincinnati Bengals wideout Ja'Marr Chase echoed the comments made by Joe Burrow this week when addressing the future of the team.

The short and sweet of it? Something has to change.

That’s pretty much what Burrow said ahead of the Week 18 season finale against the Arizona Cardinals.

Chase followed up on that in his own presser on Thursday, declining to go into specifics, but making it plain as day that the problems are obvious:

“I think some of the things are pretty obvious, what we need to change. At the end of the day, I can’t really say or put an emphasis on what needs to be changed because that’s not my role. But it’s pretty obvious on what some of (the) issues (are) that need to be changed.”

When looking at Burrow’s comments, the quarterback who in past years told the organization to stop letting good players get away seemed to be hinting at similar things again. Cincinnati’s talent acquisition over the last handful of years hasn’t been good enough.

That has been no more apparent than on the defensive side of the ball, where Al Golden’s unit was on pace to be one of the worst-ever DVOA units.

Burrow has also mildly hinted since returning from injury that the Bengals should be open to outside voices joining the fray. From an outsider’s perspective, that applies as much to Duke Tobin’s scouting department as it does Zac Taylor’s coaching staff.

Injuries didn’t help this year. Burrow missed a chunk of the season, as did All-Pro pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson. But the very minimal significant changes to the defensive side of the ball over the offseason and the endless contract standoffs were obvious pain points before the season started.

On paper, the Bengals should be in a good position to make major upgrades to the defense over the offseason. That and evolving the talent acquisition process would seem to be the big things outsiders, Burrow and Chase have been asking for, in one form or another, for a while now.

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Ja'Marr Chase follows Joe Burrow with stern message to Bengals

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