The Cincinnati Bengals have high hopes for Ja’Marr Chase. After all, they passed on Penei Sewell to take him with the fifth overall pick despite having two other reliable receivers in Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins.
Be that as it may, Chase is now reunited with his former college quarterback, Joe Burrow, and that’s going to make the Bengals offense a lot of fun to watch. While Chase will be relevant in the Rookie of the Year race, he’s going to have a tough time winning it simply because of the position he plays and the team he plays for.
According to WynnBet, Chase is tied for ninth in the Offensive Rookie of the Year race ahead of the season with +1400 odds, tying him with Eagles receiver Devonta Smith. The top four odds belong to Trevor Lawrence (+350), Najee Harris (+550), and Justin Fields and Trey Lance (both with +700 odds).
Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase has an uphill battle when it comes to winning ROTY.
While I’ve been optimistic about Chase’s chances at staying relevant in the OROTY race this season, these odds shouldn’t surprise anyone. The last wide receiver to win the honor was Odell Beckham, which was back in 2014.
Since then, three quarterbacks and three running backs have been crowned OROTY, making the journey an even tougher one for Chase. The Bengals rookie receiver is tied with Smith as the receiver with the highest odds to win the title and Harris of the Steelers and Kyle Pitts of the Falcons are the only non-quarterbacks with better odds than him.
It’s difficult for a receiver to win Rookie of the Year but Chase is going to be in the running for it even if his odds say otherwise right now. He’s fortunate that his quarterback isn’t a rookie too because that’d make it more difficult for him to make a splash in the Offensive Rookie of the Year sweepstakes.
Bengals fans are excited to see what Ja’Marr Chase can do and while he’ll definitely put on a show and make things interesting in the Rookie of the Year race, no one should be surprised that his odds are what they are at this point. There’s still a long season ahead of us.
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