Ja’Marr Chase gets the ultimate compliment from Mike Evans that no other wideout will ever receive
Ja'Marr Chase and Mike Evans have quite a bit in common. They're both wide receivers who were drafted with top-10 picks, they've each made several Pro Bowls, and neither of them have finished a regular season with fewer than 1,000 receiving yards.
Chase is entering his prime at 25 years old and Evans has been doing this much longer as he's approaching the onset of his 11th season, but one cannot rank the best wideouts in the NFL without mentioning both of them.
But where would one rank himself compared to the other? Evans had arguably the best answer possible for both Cincinnati Bengals fans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans.
Fox Sports' Greg Auman asked Evans who his favorite young receivers are, and he led off the list with Cincinnati's top target.
"Ja'Marr Chase," Evans said. "He's a guy where if you said he was better than me—I don't think anybody's better than me—but if you said him, I would understand."
For a long-time veteran with a Hall of Fame case to be made when he retires, this is about as high of praise as you'll come across.
Chase was joined by Justin Jefferson, Nico Collins, and fellow NFC South pass-catcher Drake London in Evans' naming of his favorite young receivers, but the Bengals' No. 1 is the only one Evans would concede being at his level, if not greater.
Stock in Chase is about as high as it could possibly be right now. The highest-paid receiver in the league is coming off his first All-Pro season in which he became the fifth to win the triple crown. Chase's league-leading 127 receptions, 1,708 yards, and 17 touchdowns were also Bengals single-season records. He shares the touchdown record with Carl Pickens, who scored 17 times in 1995.
Whether or not Chase's encore performance matches his historic 2024 campaign shouldn't change the fact that he's at the top of the game right now, and battle-tested elders at the position such as Evans can't help but recognize.
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