It feels like we’ve heard variations of this story a few times now but it’s still interesting nonetheless — Ja’Marr Chase says Joe Burrow told him about the Cincinnati Bengals making him the pick the night before the draft.
Chase, during an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway, revealed the contents of Burrow’s simple text message to him before the draft: “Make sure your bag is packed and ready.”
Before the draft, we wrote the pick made too much sense and in that writeup, there was plenty of buzz already linking the Bengals to Chase. At the same time, Burrow was publicly adamant he wasn’t pushing for the team to make the move.
But at the end of the day, said move made way too much sense. The Bengals don’t make it to the Super Bowl last year if they pick an offensive lineman. Instead, they capitalized on the thousands of pre-established reps between Burrow and Chase in college — never mind borderline best-in-class NFL prospects at their respective positions — to make that title run.
Chase himself says he didn’t believe Burrow that night before the draft but was proven wrong. The two then teamed up to prove doubters wrong, too.
Joe Burrow knew the Bengals were going to take Ja'Marr Chase at pick No. 5 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft if he was on the board.
He even sent his former LSU teammate a hint the night before.
"Make sure your bag is packed and ready." pic.twitter.com/tt0B6yRWmq
— Kelsey Conway (@KelseyLConway) June 1, 2022
