Joe Burrow won’t have anyone to throw to vs. Patriots if latest Ja’Marr Chase reporting bears out

Last season, the Cincinnati Bengals had quite a variety of weapons on their offense, whenever they were fully healthy. Of course, they had the dynamic duo of Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase, who have terrorized defenses since their days together at LSU.

Beyond those two, the team had one of the better running backs in the league in Joe Mixon, who had performed well for the Bengals during his entire tenure with the team.

Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd were the complementary receivers alongside Chase. They provided a three headed monster out wide that gave opposing defensive coordinators nightmares.

Fast forward to this season now.

Joe Mixon has moved on, working in the backfield with CJ Stroud in Houston. Tyler Boyd went to Tennessee in a deal with the Titans after not getting the contract that he wanted from the Bengals.

Going into Week 1, the Bengals could be missing a lot more from their 2023 offense than just Mixon and Boyd though.

Chase listed as questionable; Higgins as doubtful ahead of Week 1

As just about everybody around football knows, Ja'Marr Chase has been holding out while he negotiates a record-breaking contract extension. Chase has made it known that he will sit out if the negotiations don't go well. He's also made it known that the negotiations have been going pretty well, trending in the right direction.

Either way, Chase has officially listed himself as questionable ahead of Sunday's Week 1 matchup with the Patriots. But the disastrous offensive offseason doesn't stop there.

Now, with two days until the first game of the season, Tee Higgins has officially been listed as doubtful for the first game with a hamstring injury. Hamstring injuries are pretty serious and they tend to nag on quite a bit if they're not healed all the way.

Higgins isn't expected to play and he could miss multiple weeks because of his contract situation as well. He doesn't have the security of a long-term extension just like Chase doesn't so it wouldn't make sense for the wideout to try to play through an injury.

So, if both Higgins and Chase miss this week, that would leave Burrow with Andrei Iosivas, Trenton Irwin, Jermaine Burton and Charlie Jones as his wideouts. He would also have Drew Sample, Mike Gesicki, Zack Moss and Chase Brown to work with.

Also to note, Burrow is recovering from a very serious right arm/hand injury that ended his 2024 season early.

The Bengals could be on upset watch against the Patriots if both guys miss this game. It's quite the disastrous way to begin the season for Burrow and company.