Bengals receivers form what they think is NFL’s best unit
LOS ANGELES — Cooper Kupp is incredible and now plays alongside the ultra-talented Odell Beckham for the Rams, but the Bengals believe they have the league’s best receiving corps.
Heading into Sunday’s Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, it’s entirely possible that they’re right.
Cincinnati has used early draft picks on receivers the last two seasons and both of them eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards this season. The Bengals’ third receiver reached that plateau in each of the two years before the infusion of talent at the position.
Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd now comprise one of the best groups in the league.
As talented as they are individually, particularly Chase, the No. 5 pick from the draft and expected rookie of the year, their strength is their ability to form a cohesive unit.
“They’ve come together,” Bengals’ receivers coach Troy Walters said. “They’re unselfish. They don’t care who gets the credit, who gets the glory. They come to work every day. They bust their tails. … You put that alongside their athletic ability and the sky is the limit.”
Chase was the player to put them over the top. He formed a dynamic duo with quarterback Joe Burrow at LSU. The Bengals drafted him in the hopes of recreating that magic at the NFL level.
It worked almost immediately. Despite some inconsistency in the preseason, Chase has been everything the team dreamed of and more, reaching 100 yards seven times and surpassing 200 yards on two occasions.
He broke the record for receiving yards by a rookie with 1,455, receiving yards in a single game by a rookie with 266 and has now become the first rookie with more than 100 yards in multiple postseason games.
Bengals’ coach Zac Taylor declined to take credit for the explosive season. “No matter what team drafted Ja’Marr, he would have had a ton of success this year,” Taylor said.
That he joined such a talented group already in place only helped accelerate the process.
While Burrow was the first pick of the 2020 draft, Higgins was the top pick of the second round out of Clemson. He had 67 catches for 908 yards as a rookie before taking off with 74 grabs and 1,091 yards this season.
He was particularly effective in the middle of the season when defensive attention picked up on Chase. Higgins had four 100-yard games in five weeks from late November until the end of December just as the Bengals started a win streak that has carried them into this game.
But the true unsung hero of the group is Boyd. Cincinnati drafted him out of Pitt in 2016 to be a complementary piece to star A.J. Green, but Boyd emerged as a star in his own right and served as a No. 1 option as Green dealt with injuries.
The 27-year-old Pennsylvania native had 1,000-yard seasons in both 2018 and 2019 before Higgins and then Chase were drafted. While he has played a different role, Boyd continues to find success. He has at least 67 catches and at least 800 yards in each of the last two years.
Boyd’s ability to embrace such a drastic role change is part of why Burrow has given him every opportunity to succeed and he’s taken advantage.
It’s also simplified things for Walters.
“Those guys are coachable,” he said. “They want to be coached. … It makes my job a lot easier because they come in every day wanting to be great.”
The Rams’ secondary will need to be ready on Sunday.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.