Latest Ja'Marr Chase practice stunt throws wrench into Bengals plans

The 2024 NFL offseason has been dominated by a few distinct headlines. As is the case every year, the headlines are dominated by QB competitions, players landing on new teams and the NFL Draft. While all of these storylines have been prevalent, a few star wide receivers have also been making news for the wrong reasons.

Brandon Aiyuk of the San Fransisco 49ers, CeeDee Lamb of the Dallas Cowboys and Ja'Marr Chase of the Cincinnati Bengals held out this preseason as they look for contract extensions.

Recently, Lamb landed his, with the Cowboys paying him $136 million over four years. Chase and Aiyuk were expected to follow suit, as Chase returned to practice and Aiyuk was set to ink his new deal in the near future too.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor even announced that Chase was going to be a full practice participant this entire week, before his contract was finalized.

Ja'Marr Chase ends holdout for a day, sits out of practice on Wednesday

The Chase saga was over for about one day.

Bengals reporter Ben Baby has reported that Chase is not practicing on Wednesday, one day after the team's head coach announced that he would be a full participant all week.

This doesn't bode well for Chase, the team, the front office or anybody involved. It certainly paints a bad look on his contract situation.

What could have happened?

The best guess here is that Chase or the Bengals misjudged just how far apart they were from achieving said deal, or perhaps Ja'Marr prefers to be out of the spotlight while negotiating a new contract.

This is all just speculation at this point. There could be a real, different reason that Chase is sitting out, but from the outside looking in, it paints a bad picture on the contract situation.

With this all in mind, I wouldn't anticipate Chase being a full go in practice until he signs on the dotted line of a contract extension. Things may still be close to a done deal, but close isn't going to cut it in this case.

Until Chase is inked to a new contract, he should be expected to remain out of practice. His representation isn't messing around about his money.