Struggling early on to figure it all out. And it was all in the context of comments that he made regarding issues he's had. Wait for it. Catching the football. The guy didn't play football last year. It's just not easy to go that long of a time without playing football and just think you're gonna hit the ground running and here we go. What I'm concerned about is they're talking about him having trouble getting off press coverage. Because if you're wide receiver, you can't beat press coverage, you do two things. You coach or you sell cars. Chase silenced those doubts last season, and now the Bengals believe he can make even more noise in 2022. Today, the athletics Paul daner junior tells us how the team plotted all off season to make that happen. He wants to win the Triple Crown, receptions receiving yards and touchdowns. He wants to lead the league in all of those, and does that sound a little crazy? Maybe, but it also sounds a little crazy to see that guy do what he did last year. Plus, the outlook for chase, Joe burrow, and the Bengals. Following a dream season, where they came up just short. From wondering, I'm Tiffany osinski, it's Wednesday, August 17th, and this is the lead. Paul daner, junior, welcome back to the lead. It's good to be good to be back. Thanks. Yeah, thanks for being here. So Paul, you've been covering the Bengals for a while. You're from Cincinnati. So has there been a different vibe around this team in since you coming off that run to the Super Bowl has all of the success gone to the fans heads? There's an understatement of the century right there. Yeah, no, this city has never been more alive and in love with the Bengals than any time that I can remember. And that dates back to the last time they were in the Super Bowl back in 1988 season. So it's been forever. I mean, they had gone 31 years without winning a playoff game and there was kind of a negative vibe around the whole team and they have gone from really the depths of their connection with their own fan base to lowest season ticket sales they'd ever had to really where they were kind of viewed as a joke and almost a problem in the community, you know? To now being as beloved as they have ever been, there's a waiting list for season tickets and everybody has a Jersey or you see them around town wearing the Bengals gear. It never used to be like that. And so it tells you the Joe burrow Jamar chase effect is very, very real and yeah, this city has never been more in love with the Bengals. New team, new stadium named new outlook on life. I love it for Cincinnati. As for the guy we're focusing on today, Ja'Marr chase, how has he looked in training camp? Yeah, I mean, he's been spectacular, honestly. It's unfortunate, you know, we have a line that says never be a meme. And you never want to be a meme at any point. There was a video that went viral of Jamar chase making a ridiculous one handed catch in the person that it went viral from shot it just a couple spots down from where I was sitting and he makes this ridiculous one handed catching it catches me looking back with this look of just like, oh my goodness, that's ridiculous and I've never had my face frozen and sent back to me more than it did in this and it was that's the perfect description of what it's like watching Ja'Marr chase right now. He's just ridiculous. I mean, in every day he does something that makes you make that face. That's just wow, this dude is you saw it last year and he was so good and he just blew away everyone's expectations. Honestly, he looks better in camp this year and he looks like he has progressed and nobody really works harder. He's always the last one on the field, catching extra balls, doing extra drills. And there seems to be no let up in his game. That's for sure. As the Steelers fan that is not what I want to hear, but that's okay. Now, chase made some headlines a few weeks back in a GQ interview saying he bought clothes for Joe burrow, paraphrasing a bit. He said that burrows not really in a fashion. He's cool with his quote little khakis and skinny jeans. Now, chase just asked about this by reporters in the locker room and here's what he had to say. He's talking about why I said about him close. So that's what the first thing he talked to me about. Was that a lie? Kinda, yeah. I ain't buy Joe no close. But now I have to, since that's out now. So. He admits that he was lying about buying Joe burrow clothes. How did burrow respond to that? And what can you tell us about the dynamic between chase and burrow? They have a really interesting dynamic. Well, one, not only were they former teammates at LSU and had put together one of the greatest seasons ever in college football history. Their neighbors now. I mean, they came to town in Jamar wanted a house on the street, so he went specifically and had his realtor and him go looking door to door to find how can we get some houses on Joe's street and they were able to get house on Joe street to their neighbors so they can go right down the street if they need to. You know, drop off some cookies or some clothes, right? I mean, it seems like they do have this connection. And the one thing about that, though, that really, that's an on the field element. It was last year, Jamar chase made a bunch of headlines. He was struggling in the preseason and he wasn't catching the ball. And he was kind of under fire and he admits he was in his own head a little bit. Well, there was one person that was never putting him under fire, and that was always in his corner, privately, and publicly. That was Joe burrow. Anytime anything was asked behind the scenes about, hey, what's going on here with Jamar with the drops and this and that? And Jim, I'll be fine. Jamal be fine. Just wait, jamaar be fine. Knowing when to prop him up, knowing how to be there for him. It's just a dynamic that they've had since the LSU days and one that certainly showed off last year. And I think is going to continue to show up again this year. It's a special connection. I can only see them now with Harry nilsson's best friend playing in the background. Whenever I see those two together, I'm just going to be hearing that song in the background. That's it. That's it. It is, you know? And you see it all the time. Jamar is always the one that in an interview will needle Joe and take shots at him. Everybody else burrows got a pretty big persona here. Inside of the Cincinnati locker room, people aren't quite as quick take those shots, but Jamar is never hesitated. He's always willing to kind of poke fun as you heard with the lying about the clothes thing. It goes back to that same thing. He's never afraid to mess with burrow in any way. So Paul, on this episode, we're going to take a closer look at how the Bengals are planning for even bigger things for Jamar chase this season. But before we get there, can you take us back to last year around this time when things were actually not going smoothly for chase, which you mentioned a little bit already? Can you tell us a bit more about what the narrative was around chase heading into last season and remind us why the narrative was there in the first place? The narrative was bust. The narrative was this dude can't catch the narrative was uh oh, did the Bengals blow this? Because let's not forget. They had one of the most controversial picks of that draft in taking Jamar chase because they had a team that needed offensive line help in a big, big way. And there was penne soul sitting right there. Everyone had sort of pegged him to the Bengals. Clearly a team that needs offensive line help would take this awesome tackle. And they didn't see it that way. They saw it as Jamar chase can help the offensive line just as much as anybody else because his ability to get open so quickly and be so dynamic and they can fix the offensive line. In other ways and they took shots. They took a lot of heat for that pick and then when Jamar chase shows up and isn't playing well, it felt like this could be a disaster,