Bengals: 9 players to protect in a hypothetical expansion draft

Cincinnati Bengals to Protect – No. 4: Ja’Marr Chase

The Bengals have three really good receivers on their roster and Ja’Marr Chase is now the second one to appear on this list. This might seem odd to include him considering he hasn’t played a single snap for the Bengals but the fact that he played college ball with Joe Burrow is reason enough to keep him in the Queen City.

When we last saw Chase in action, he was catching passes from Burrow in Baton Rouge and helped win LSU a National Championship. He opted out of the 2020 season but clearly, teams still saw huge potential from him and the Bengals proved that by selecting him fifth overall.

There are a lot of other receivers far better than Chase but an incoming team might see a young rookie receiver and want him on their team because of how cheap he’d be for the next four (potentially five) years. The Bengals would definitely want to ensure that Chase is protected and unable to steal.

Chase and Higgins were protected here, leaving Tyler Boyd available to be stolen but in all honesty, with Boyd being owed more money, he’d be less appealing to be snatched up. This strategy would give Cincinnati the best chance at coming out of the expansion draft with all three of their starting receivers.