CIN · WR
Projected Points (PPR)
This week
No projection changes recorded this week.
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Ja'Marr Chase remains the primary target in Cincinnati's passing game, occupying the top receiver spot on the depth chart with Tee Higgins working opposite him as the number two option. Across the 2025 season Chase played all sixteen games, started all sixteen, and ran a route on 94% of the offense's snaps, a figure that leaves little doubt about his standing in the game plan. He drew 185 targets and turned them into 125 receptions, a catch rate of 67.6%. Through two games in 2026 that role has not changed structurally: he is playing 91.1% of the snaps and has already drawn 13 targets, on pace to remain the focal point of quarterback Joe Burrow's progression reads. The receiving yardage this season sits at 87 on nine catches, with two touchdowns already logged, including work inside the red zone where he has seen two targets. None of this suggests a change in how the coaching staff views him: he is still the receiver the offense is built to feed, and the snap share confirms he is on the field for nearly every meaningful down. The presence of Tee Higgins as a real second option gives the passing game balance, but it has not come at the expense of Chase's opportunity share so far. Joe Burrow's willingness to distribute early in this sample has not diminished the target log noted above, and running back Chase Brown's role in the backfield does not compete for the same targets. The volume, when it has been on the field, remains a starting receiver's workload.
The case for Ja'Marr Chase starts with the plain math of 2025: 313.6 PPR points across sixteen games, a per-game average of 19.6, and a finish of fourth among all receivers in PPR scoring. That is a receiver who was targeted enough (185 times) and trusted enough in scoring range (21 red zone targets) to produce touchdowns in bunches, finishing with eight on the year. The receptions total of 125 on a catch rate of 67.6% shows he was not merely accumulating garbage-time volume; he was the focal point of a functioning passing offense quarterbacked by Joe Burrow, with Tee Higgins drawing enough coverage attention on the other side to keep defenses from doubling Chase on every snap. The case against him this season is built entirely from the early sample. Through two games, his per-game PPR average is 14.9, down from 19.6 a season ago, and his positional finish so far sits at seventeenth among all receivers in PPR scoring, a steep drop from fourth. His yards per reception have also fallen, from 11.3 last season to 9.7 so far in 2026, suggesting shorter completions rather than the intermediate and downfield work that fueled his touchdown production a year ago. The red zone target count of two through two games is proportionally in line with last year's rate, but two games is too small a window to say whether that will hold. His touchdown production so far, two scores, is actually ahead of last season's per-game pace, which cuts against the idea that his role has shrunk in a meaningful way. The honest read is that the underlying opportunity, snap share above ninety percent in both samples, targets arriving at a healthy per-game clip, has not disappeared. What has moved is efficiency: fewer yards per catch, a lower per-game point total. That kind of dip can reflect early-season game plans, defensive attention, or simple variance in a two-game sample rather than a structural decline in his role. Cincinnati's offense still funnels through him, Joe Burrow still looks his way early and often, and Tee Higgins still occupies enough defensive attention to prevent Chase from facing constant double coverage. The larger 2025 sample, sixteen games of nearly a fifth of the century mark in PPR points per game, is the more reliable signal of what this offense wants to do with him. A manager weighing the two data sets should lean toward the larger one while acknowledging the early numbers as a real, if likely temporary, dip in production.
Ja'Marr Chase should be in a starting lineup without hesitation. The role underneath the current numbers, snap share above ninety percent in both 2025 and the early portion of 2026, targets arriving every week, involvement in the red zone, has not eroded. The dip in per-game scoring from 19.6 a season ago to 14.9 so far this year is a function of efficiency and touchdown timing more than usage, and a receiver seeing this much of the field and this much air traffic will typically regress back toward his established level rather than continue trending downward. His 2025 finish of fourth among all receivers in PPR scoring reflects what the offense is capable of producing through him when the touchdowns and yardage line up. Managers should not bench him or treat him as a flex-only option based on two games. What would actually change the calculus is a sustained shift in target share away from him over a longer stretch, something not yet visible in the numbers provided, or a change in how frequently Joe Burrow looks his direction relative to Tee Higgins. Until that shows up across a larger sample, the correct approach is to write him into the lineup weekly, trust the role, and view the early efficiency dip as noise rather than signal.
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Ja'Marr Chase is in concussion protocol after leaving Sunday’s game, so his Week 5 availability is in doubt. Fantasy managers should prepare for the possibility that he misses this week.
He was ruled out for the rest of the game with a concussion. Tee Higgins and the other Bengals receivers should see a larger target share.
Oct 5, 11:00 AM ET
Sources:FantasyProsCBS Sports