Deebo Samuel rips Bengals over Ja’Marr Chase contract

He isn’t wrong.

The Cincinnati Bengals and star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase weren’t able to come to terms on a long-term contract extension this offseason. With negotiations going all the way up until hours before kickoff during Week 1, the two weren’t able to come to terms.

Now in mid-November, Chase is in the middle of the best season of his entire career. Chase leads the NFL in receptions, yards, and touchdowns for a wide receiver and is on pace to win the “triple crown” this season.

With a performance like this, the price for Chase’s services is likely going to be higher than it was in August, so the Bengals may have done themselves a disservice.

San Francisco 49ers star receiver shared the same sentiment during an interview with Bleacher Report. He sounded shocked that the Bengals didn’t give Chase the contract he was asking for.

“It’s definitely not a great idea now with him playing the way he’s playing,” Samuel said. “He was already doing this. That’s the thing. And it’s like, all right, you can make him mad, which is obviously not what you wanted to do…now you’re gonna have another problem this offseason.”

With each eye-popping performance out of “Uno,” the optics on the whole situation just get worse and worse for the Bengals. After his 264-yard, three-touchdown performance, even his agent weighed in.

Chase is forcing the Bengals’ hand at this point, and it isn’t anyone’s fault but theirs.