National Football League

Super Bowl 2022: Ja’Marr Chase, Bengals WR trio have Rams' attention

Updated Feb. 10, 2022 4:39 p.m. ET

By Eric D. Williams
FOX Sports NFL Writer

LOS ANGELES — One of the biggest, most dominant receivers of his era, Hall of Famer Michael Irvin knows a mismatch when he sees it.

And for Irvin, Cincinnati Bengals flashy receiver Ja’Marr Chase is that dude.

So, of course, Irvin expects the Los Angeles Rams' best cornerback, Jalen Ramsey, to match up with Chase, following him all over the field. When asked by Irvin about that this week, the always confident Ramsey said he’s up to the task — if given that assignment by defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.

"Of course, that’s what I’m asking for," Ramsey said. "That’s what I want. Whoever you think their best man is, put me on him. Let me help the team win this game. That’s what it’s all about. But there are different areas where we might have to do something different because it might put the team in a better position to win."

One big reason for Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow’s success in his second NFL season is the playmakers the Bengals have surrounded him with, including his former LSU teammate in Chase.

Cincinnati has one of the most productive three-receiver sets in the NFL in Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. According to Next Gen Stats, the Bengals aligned in three-receiver sets 77% of the time in the regular season. Only the Rams were in three-receiver sets more, at 83%.

"They’ve come together as a unit," Bengals receivers coach Troy Walters said of the group. "They’re unselfish. They don’t care who gets the credit, who gets the glory. They come to work every day and bust their tails. Practice is important. Preparation is important.

"You put that alongside their athletic ability, and the sky is the limit."

The three receivers combined for 222 catches, 3,374 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns in the regular season — the most by a pass-catching trio in team history. Boyd is the oldest at 27, while Chase is 21 years old and Higgins is 23, so this group can play at a high level for at least a couple more seasons if they stay together.

"First of all, the youth that they have together right now is something special," Irvin told FOX Sports this week. "And the diversity that they have with those three receivers is phenomenal. Ja’Marr Chase is all over the field and can do everything. Tee Higgins is a big dude that will go up and get that ball.

"That third-down ball he caught on the slant [against the Kansas City Chiefs], that was a huge play. That ball came skyrocketing, and he had to grab it right there. He was ready to give up his body. And then you have Tyler Boyd. The combination of what those three give Joe Burrow back there is incredible."

At 6-foot and 200 pounds, Chase developed a good rapport with Burrow during their time in Baton Rouge. In the 2019 championship season for the Tigers, Burrow and Chase combined for 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Burrow won the Heisman trophy, and Chase earned the Fred Biletnikoff Award for the best receiver in the country.

With Chase selected No. 5 overall by the Bengals in 2021, their chemistry continued in the NFL, with the rookie leading the team in receptions (81), receiving yards (1,455) and scores (13), setting a rookie franchise record and earning Pro Bowl honors.

"Whenever you have to get to know a new receiver, it’s always tough at the beginning because you have to learn how he’s running routes. He needs to learn the velocity and placement of your footballs," Burrow said. "And we already had that coming in. We knew how to talk about the routes we missed, and we’d get that corrected very quickly. So, it’s a big advantage when you already have a relationship with a new receiver that you have."

Now in his sixth season in Cincinnati, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Boyd has been with the Bengals the longest and has developed into one of the best slot receivers in the game. According to Next Gen Stats, Boyd recorded 1,534 receiving yards when aligned in the slot the past two seasons; only Cooper Kupp (1,847) and Cole Beasley (1,562) had more.

"Tyler is a very underrated part of our offense," Burrow said this week. "I wish he would get more love because he’s one of the best slot guys in the league. He really understands what we’re trying to do on each play, and he’s always where I expect him to be. And he never drops the ball. He’s a guy I can rely on in critical moments of the game to go out and make plays for me."

Selected No. 33 overall in the 2020 draft, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Higgins is another in a long line of productive, big-body receivers produced by Clemson.

Defensively, the Rams predominantly played zone this season, with Ramsey lined up a career-high 34% of the time in the slot. However, he has aligned in the slot just 8% of the time in the postseason.

With the addition of veteran safety Eric Weddle, Ramsey could be freed up to go back to shadowing the opposing team’s best receiver, as former defensive coordinator Brandon Staley executed in 2020. According to Next Gen Stats, in the 2020 season, Ramsey shadowed big-body receivers including DK Metcalf, DeAndre Hopkins and Mike Evans, holding them to a combined 132 receiving yards on 33 targets. As such, it’s possible the Rams will choose to match up Ramsey with Chase or Higgins on Sunday.

Weddle offered this scouting report of the Bengals' talented trio.

"They’re all very explosive, but all a little bit different in what they do in their scheme," he said. "It’s going to be a huge challenge. They’re here for a reason. They all can make plays. They’ve all made plays — big-time plays — and obviously, the stats back that up.

"But just in the flow of the game, maybe they’re struggling, and then one of those guys just makes a huge play, whether it’s Chase making a run after catch or leaping catch in the end zone or Higgins going across the middle and just snagging the ball. He’s such a natural catcher of the ball. … Those jump balls over the middle, the 50-50 balls — he always catches them with his hands, which you don’t see that often with receivers.

"And then Boyd is the veteran of the group. He's been playing a long time, it seems. My time in Baltimore, he was making plays all over the field, doing all the tough stuff, the under routes and the pivots, third-down catches. He really comes alive in those situations."

Irvin said that if Ramsey shadows Cincinnati’s best receiver, with big names such as Chase, Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr. getting all the attention heading into Sunday’s matchup, it will be up to Cincinnati’s lesser-known names to step up and play like frontline stars.

"If I’m Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins, I would go into this game saying they are going to be talking about Cooper Kupp," Irvin said. "They are going to be talking about Ja’Marr Chase. They are going to talking about Odell Beckham Jr. But make sure at the end of this game they’re talking about y’all. If you want to be considered one of the great ones, you get your name into that conversation.

"By the end of this game, make sure you are the receiver they are talking about over those three."

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @eric_d_williams.