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Ja’Marr Chase explains problems with drops, blames NFL ball: ‘The ball is different because it is bigger’
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Ja’Marr Chase went to the Cincinnati Bengals with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, but there have been some worrying signs this preseason.
Namely, the former LSU star hasn’t been able to catch anything thrown his way, with his preseason consisting of 4 dropped passes.
What’s the deal? Well, per Bengals.com, Chase explained that the NFL ball is different than the college ball, and that is giving him some trouble:
“The ball is different because it is bigger,” Chase said. “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 added that he’s not looking the ball into his hands the way he needs to:
“My drops come from me not looking the ball in. By looking the ball in I’m talking about high-pointing it and watching it and as soon as it hit you looking away,” Chase said. “Me running before the catch. Me doing stuff like that and dropping it. I did that a couple times.”
The Bengals start the regular season on Sunday. We’ll see if Chase can put his drop issues behind him.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
