We are about to watch Ja’Marr Chase clean up his locker from the greatest season a Bengals receiver ever had, and we're suggesting the first addition for 2025 on his famous list of goals.
After becoming the third man to win the NFL receiving Triple Crown this century, Chase admits he may be looking for some new ones to place on the most famous mirror in America since Snow White signed with Disney.
His mirror that supplied so much 2024 magic is where he sticks his list of goals. He's been doing it since his freshman year at LSU. He guards it like a playbook, but you've got to believe becoming the first man to catch 17 touchdowns and 1,700 yards wasn't on the list. Although 17 TDs and 1,700 yards (1,708), could very well have been on there as separate items.
All-Pro is definitely on the list. He's told us from the jump four years ago he wants to appear on that team selected by The Associated Press, the Pro Football Writers of America, The Sporting News and the NFL Players Association.
That should be checked off in the next few weeks.
"I expect it," Chase says.
So what's on the next list?
"I've got to think," Chase says. "That's going to take a minute."
This is no time to think of '25. On Tuesday, Chase is still cleaning out his mind as well as his locker. Yes, the NFL's best receiver plans to travel a bit in the offseason. Probably overseas, but this is not a details week.
"Who knows? I think so, but nothing's planned yet. I didn't get that far yet," says Chase, who is definitely getting on a boat somewhere soon. "Two weeks. Maybe a week. Who knows?"
Who knows what should be on his 2025 list?
We do. We know what should be on the top line:
Become the first NFL receiver since World War II to win multiple Triple Crowns.
Chase balks. The words "winning the Super Bowl," have to be on there. Another Triple Crown?
"If the season comes with what we had this year, I don't want it," Chase says. "It's a great stat and all, but I didn't really accomplish anything."
Because there are no postseason games on this week's to-do list.
"Exactly," Chase says. "We have to win one more game (to get in the playoffs)."
But he says he had fun this year. "A lot of fun."
The most fun?
"Dallas," he says, where his 40-yard catch-and-run beat the Cowboys with 61 seconds left to keep the playoffs alive. "Because of the way the game turned out."
There may be a few hints for the new list.
After emerging from his last meeting with Chase this year, wide receivers coach Troy Walters says Tuesday the topic of Randy Moss' single-season record of 23 touchdowns that he caught from Tom Brady in 2007 came up.
It will recalled after the season-finale Saturday night in Pittsburgh, Chase didn't so much savor the Triple Crown as scold himself for drops on two-would-be-touchdowns in the last two games.
"Nineteen is better than 17," Chase said that night.
"He's always hard on himself. Always looking for ways to improve and get better," Walters says. "If he had come down with those two and maybe one or two others, he'd be closer to the record.
"He set the standard this year. Now he has to repeat next year," Walters says. "He knows he's got room to grow. Now the expectation is anything less than being one of the top three receivers is unacceptable. He set a new standard for himself."
Or maybe this is going to make the list.
"Mike Thomas," says Chase.
Someone told Chase before the season he'd get 140 catches if he played in the slot. The Bengals smartly moved him around so much he got about a third of his targets inside.
"I had that many targets," says Chase, who was targeted 175 times on his 127 catches. "I have to catch it more. Be like Mike Thomas."
It turns out when Thomas had his 1,700-yard season for the Saints in 2019 (1,725), he caught 80.5% of his targets. For his career, Thomas is at 76%. This year, Chase caught 72.6% of his targets. It's 67.9 for his career.
"We just had a good talk about that," says Walters on what are the things to work on after an incomparable season. "Overall route running. Top of the routes, being more fluid, being more creative at the top of the route. Not that he's poor in that area. But that's one thing he can improve upon. Everything else he does at an elite level."
And that includes battering his gifted body into shape with punishing offseason workouts reeking of the gym. But Tuesday is too early to think of the next workout.
"Nowhere near soon," Chase says.
Or this could make the list.
On Sunday, Chase watched Tampa Bay's Mike Evans tie Jerry Rice with 11 straight years of at least 1,000 yards in the final seconds of the season.
"That was pretty cool seeing it," Chase says. "I was just enjoying the moment. You don't see that too many times."
But he did admit, "That's a great record to have."
The reason he was watching, of course, is the Bucs-Saints game led into Jets-Dolphins. The Bengals needed the Dolphins and Broncos to lose Sunday to make the postseason.
"I never turned on the Broncos," Chase says. "I watched the first series of the Jets and turned the game off. I knew that's how the day would go."
How mad?
"On a scale of one to 10, a six," says Chase, who plans to do everything he can next year to prevent the Bengals from watching on the final Sunday after a slow start and torrid finish. "We have to play playoff football from the jump. Not until it's too late. It should be a mindset. From here on out it should be a standard."
If Chase isn't thinking about details on Tuesday, he's thinking about a standard.
"I don't know what to do with myself. I may stay (in Cincinnati) for about a week. I don't know yet," says Chase, who knows he's got a full offseason at some point. "A lot to work on. Everything. Really getting better at the weaknesses I have."
Weaknesses?
"I can't tell you," says Chase, about to clean up his locker after cleaning out his goals.
