But the Bengals’ decision to draft Chase with the fifth pick wasn’t nearly as shocking as all that, according to the tea leaves that were read in the past month. The Bengals weren’t all that different from everybody else and seemed to have Chase, Florida tight end Kyle Pitts and Oregon left tackle Penei Sewell in a virtual dead heat on top of the PBS draft board, which, nowadays, is really virtual.
“After the quarterbacks, we felt like we ended up looking at the top three players in the draft,” says Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. “Those guys were a notch above what’s coming after and they’re going to be good players. But those guys are elite. The best at their position. … Not an easy decision. We’ve been back and forth on these guys.”
What helped Chase go at No. 5?
His track record against future NFL cornerbacks in the SEC, the ability to easier project the talents of skill players after a year of opt-outs and his historical connection to Burrow in a Bengals scheme that looks familiar to both.
While the universe of draft big boards strewn across the NFL media landscape seemed to have Pitts rated as the highest non-quarterback (he went No. 4 to Atlanta), Chase and Sewell were the best players at positions of need for the Bengals. If it wasn’t rock-paper-scissors, but it could have been. But what’s not left to chance is that the Bengals’ struggling long ball now has one of the best deep receivers to ever play in college ball.
Not only that, they already have his quarterback. Callahan says the Joe Factor wasn’t the factor. It was one of them, but not the decider.
“It ended up he’s a guy that can make a difference in our offense. He’s so explosive,” Callahan says. “To me, he’s the best receiver that’s come out in the last three years. He’s worthy of that spot where guys like A.J. and Julio were drafted. It’s hard to pass up that kind of talent.”
And while the scouts were hamstrung by no 2020 tape on Chase and limited to Zoom interviews, they had the ultimate source on Chase.