Ja’Marr Chase was selected with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2021 Draft and things have been rocky ever since. The Bengals rookie wide receiver has been dropping passes left and right in practice and in preseason games.
He is now openly admitting that the biggest adjustment is the way the football looks in college compared to how it looks in the NFL.
“The ball is different because it is bigger,” Chase said, via Bengals.com. “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 whole ball is brown and you have the six strings that are white. But for the most part, just have to get used to it and find out what I am comfortable with catching.”
Chase also said sitting out the 2020 season has him rusty.
“I don’t want to blame it on me sitting on my butt the whole year, but it probably had something to do with it, of course,” Chase said. “There’s a bigger ball adjustment, so I don’t want to make excuses but I’ve just got to be a pro and make the catch.”
The 21-year-old was a two-year starter at LSU and a unanimous All-American during his sophomore season.
During his college career at LSU, Chase caught 107 passes for 2,093 yards receiving and 23 touchdowns over the course of two seasons and 24 games.
