Joe Burrow Jokes About Ja'Marr Chase's Preseason Drops After Bengals WR's Big Game

Everyone is in a joking mood after a season-opening win.

After helping lead the Cincinnati Bengals to a 27-24 overtime victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, quarterback Joe Burrow joked, "I thought he was dropping everything," as he walked past rookie wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase in the postgame press conference:

Drops were a storyline surrounding Chase during the preseason. He also told Bengals.com's Geoff Hobson: "The [NFL] ball is different because it is bigger. It doesn't have the white stripes on the side, so you can't see the ball coming from the tip point, so you actually have to look for the strings on the ball at the top, which is hard to see because [the] whole ball is brown and you have the six strings that are white."

However, he didn't have any drops in his regular-season debut.

Instead, he finished with a team-high five catches for 101 yards and one touchdown alongside a wide receiver group that includes Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. It was surely what the Bengals envisioned when they selected him with the No. 5 overall pick of the 2021 NFL draft.

That alone was hotly debated at the time—and still is—considering Burrow was sacked 32 times in 10 games last season. The 2020 No. 1 overall pick and face of the franchise tore his ACL and MCL in his left knee in Week 11 after being hit in the pocket by several Washington Football Team players.

Still, the Bengals opted to take Burrow's LSU teammate fifth overall instead of a top-tier offensive lineman such as Oregon's Penei Sewell. Former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum said before the draft: "If the Cincinnati Bengals don't draft an offensive tackle, they should be disbanded and revoked from the NFL."

None of that outside noise bothered Chase, who said the following, per ESPN's Ben Baby: "I know I was going to do it. It was just a matter of time. Just play my game and focus on what I came here to do, and that's what I did."

Up next for the Bengals and Chase is a road game versus the 0-1 Chicago Bears.