Since Ja’Marr Chase entered the NFL in 2021, he’s accumulated 6,837 receiving yards, which trails only Justin Jefferson (7,080) at the position. Chase and Jefferson are the only receivers in this span to clear 6,500 and one of three receivers to average more than 85 yards per game (Puka Nacua is the third). Essentially, once you account for longevity, it’s a two-horse race at the top of the league for the title of best wide receiver in football—Jefferson’s 2025 RP profile was one of the best in our history, reminding everyone of his status as a contender despite his quarterback situation from last year. Chase’s Reception Perception charting from last season was also spectacular and continued to demonstrate how his game has evolved as a technician and master craftsman at all three receiver spots. He’s been one of the most enjoyable players to track from prospect to pro, especially as his deployment and role have shifted in recent seasons.
Success Rate by Route
Route Percentage
Success Rate vs. Coverage
In 2025, Chase took 65.2% of his sampled snaps outside and 61.6% on the line of scrimmage. He was in the slot for 30.3% and in the backfield for 4.5% as primarily a motion option. That’s been consistent with his deployment over the last few years as a primary but not exclusive X-receiver, but it’s a departure from his early career.
From 2021 to 2022, he took an average of 81% of his sampled snaps outside and 76% on the ball, including a whopping 85.7% as a rookie. That’s about as close to a pure X-receiver role as you’ll see from a WR1 in today’s game.
We saw a shift in 2023. After that year, Chase told me he was still earning the coaching staff’s confidence to play all three spots at a high level. Over the past three seasons, he’s taken 68.3% of his sampled snaps outside and 60.5% on the ball. He’s been in the slot on at least 23.9% of his snaps, including a career-high 30.3% in 2025. I’d say he’s accomplished his mission to become a trusted option from every alignment.
If you know my work, you know my stance on what it means when you see a team dole out static X-receiver-only alignment to their No. 1 wide receiver, which is borderline malpractice in today’s game. You’re either telling us something about that player, or you as an offensive architect. The Bengals’ decision to deploy a player who absolutely didn’t need it this way proves why it’s such a big unlock. Chase’s two best seasons from a yards-per-game standpoint (100.5 and 88.3) have come over the last two years as his role has shifted and his targets-per-route rate shot up to a career-high 29% despite playing through some quarterback chaos.
As mentioned, there was nothing from Chase’s first two seasons that said he needed a role change to be great. He averaged a 75.3% success rate vs. man coverage and an 81% success rate vs. press in 2021 and 2022, numbers that would place him at the 81st and 93rd percentile. Those are fantastic results from someone who was mostly only lining up at X-receiver and ran a go route on 23.5% and 25.5% of his charted routes in those two seasons. As his pre-snap role shifted, his route tree also balanced out, and his go route rate fell to 17.6% in 2023 and down to around 14% in the last two seasons.
More layup targets and routes have not only helped boost his production, but it’s also launched him into the clear elite tier of NFL receivers in Reception Perception history. Over the last three years, Chase has averaged a 76.9% success rate vs. man coverage, 83.5% success rate vs. zone and 82.9% success rate vs. press coverage. His 2025 success rates alone check in at the 94th, 89th, and 97th percentile, respectively.
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t love to do this—though I am in the process of working on data to make me more comfortable with it—but since I did it with the 2025 Justin Jefferson profile, it’s only fair: if you average Chase’s success rate vs. man, zone and press together, it comes out to the 17th-best season in Reception Perception history, narrowly falling behind his 2024 season, which ranks 13th. The only other wideouts to appear in the top-20 in multiple seasons are Antonio Brown (three), Justin Jefferson (five), Odell Beckham (three), Stefon Diggs (three), Davante Adams (two) and now Ja’Marr Chase (two). The last two years have placed Chase firmly in elite territory in the Reception Perception era.
By no means do I want to ascribe all of this improvement simply to a shift in his role to higher use in the slot or as an off-ball movement Z-receiver. Chase has always been an extremely underrated intelligent route runner who knows how to manipulate coverage and separate. As his press coverage success rates show, he’s always been a high-caliber operator at the line of scrimmage. Even as a prospect, he had a strong set of release moves as a 19-year-old in his final season at LSU while facing an abnormal amount of press-man coverage for a collegiate receiver as a pure vertical X-receiver. That followed him to the NFL and only improved with age.
Where I think we’ve seen the most improvement from Chase is his zone coverage recognition and tempo as a route runner when he needs to settle into open windows, especially on in-breakers. Some of his success rate boost comes as a trickle-down from more reps away outside the X spot. Yet, there’s clear evidence on film that Chase is more decisive with his cuts and breaks on digs and even deeper outs—which he once told me is his favorite route to run—where he turned in an 85.7% success rate on both patterns last year. You’ll even see Chase defeat tough brackets on these patterns. For what it’s worth, you did see a small uptick in breaking routes, especially digs and deeper over the middle patterns when Joe Flacco was under center for this team. By all accounts, the Bengals want to blend some of the under center world with what Joe Burrow wants to do as a spread and shred passer from the shotgun. If they pull it off, we could see Chase be even further unlocked; a scary thought.
While we’ve focused most of this evaluation on his role and skills as a route runner, we can’t overlook that Chase’s almost natural ability as a pure playmaker takes him to the next level.
Chase has always been a premier ball-winner, dating all the way back to his days at LSU. As an NFL player, he’s never fallen below a 70% contested catch rate in any season, even if he’ll commit a weird drop to two in spurts. Who cares? So does every receiver. Last year, he saw a contested target on 12.1% of his sampled looks and caught 84.6% of them, a career-best mark.
The most impressive portion of Chase’s game has almost always been his work after the catch. He’s able to stack breakaway plays with the ball in his hands and pile up missed tackles. He was “in space” on 55.7% of his sampled catches and went down on first contact on just 41% of those plays. He was even better in this area in 2024, and we’ve only seen more reps in space as his role continues to evolve. If you want to say this is the cherry on top that completes his case to be crowned the best wide receiver in the NFL right now, I wouldn’t argue with you.
Ja’Marr Chase has been an extremely impressive player throughout his football career. Every time he’s gone under the Reception Perception microscope, the charting has only made that more clear. He’s also a fantastic case study for how varying up your No. 1 wideout’s pre-snap deployment with multiple alignments and motion can further weaponize an already great player, even if they don’t need role-cartering whatsoever. I firmly believe there’s yet another level for the Bengals to reach by maximizing Chase. It just requires some scheme tweaks to what the quarterback prefers to work out. It would also help if they could get more from other wide receiver and tight end options besides Tee Higgins, though he’s key in his own right, to get Chase fewer reps at X since he can handle the rigors of that spot.
What Reception Perception makes plain to see is that Chase is a fantastic technician and underrated route runner who also happens to be a special playmaker with the ball in the air and in his hands. Chase clearly broke through the barrier of elite finishers in Reception Perception history with two all-time dominant seasons back-to-back in 2024 and 2025. We are watching a Hall of Fame player smack dab in the middle of his prime.
