Ja’Marr Chase and Amarius Mims present for Bengals’ Wednesday practice

Very good news!

The Cincinnati Bengals are hitting the field for their first official game-week practice of the 2024 season.

As they continue preparing to host the New England Patriots, all eyes are on contract hold-in Ja’Marr Chase, who has sat out all but two practices since training camp began.

For Wednesday’s practice, Chase was present and in uniform, so it looks like he’s ready to rock this week. And we got a positive update on the situation from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler…

This development comes on the heels of ESPN’s Ben Baby saying, “If things don’t get wrapped up quickly, Chase will trend toward not playing in the team’s season opener.” So yeah, seeing Chase return to practice would be a great development.

There’s effectively a deadline to get a deal done by Sunday, or else this hold-in could drag out into the regular season. Now that Chase is practicing, you have to wonder if he’s committed to playing this week regardless if he gets a contract extension.

If Chase were to miss Sunday’s game, the Bengals would really need second-year wide receivers Charlie Jones and Andrei Iosivas to step up and help take pressure off of Tee Higgins. It doesn’t sound like we should expect rookie Jermaine Burton to make much, if any impact this week.

In other news, Amarius Mims was present for Wednesday’s practice as he works his way back from a pectoral injury suffered in the preseason opener. Mims was sidelined for several weeks but has slowly worked his way back to practice, so that’s a good sign he could be available this week.

Check back later today for the first injury report of the new season.

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