“Never Going To The NBA,” Joe Burrow Roasts Ja’Marr Chase’s Basketball Skills

Ja'Marr Chase welcomed Bengals teammate Joe Burrow on the first episode of his podcast on Overtime.

“Never Going To The NBA,” Joe Burrow Roasts Ja’Marr Chase’s Basketball Skills

#1 Ja'Marr Chase and #9 Joe Burrow (Image via IMAGO)

Ja’Marr Chase and content creator Annie Agar welcomed Chase’s Cincinnati Bengals teammate and quarterback Joe Burrow to their new podcast on Overtime.

In a segment, Agar teased that Chase would have become an NBA player in another life. Burrow quickly dismissed the hypothesis, saying:

He was never going to the NBA.

Chase quickly added that Burrow never saw him play basketball, to which Burrow retorted:

I have seen you shoot though.

Chase recalled former LSU head coach Les Miles advising him to play DB instead of a receiver. DBs must constantly track back and man-mark receivers, like a small forward in basketball. However, Chase was destined to be a receiver. Burrow, on the other hand, stuck with being a quarterback from the beginning because he “was never athletic enough for the coach to tell me to play another position.”

Chase noted that Burrow could play tight end if he ever decided to switch positions. Notably, former two-time college football champion Tim Tebow played tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars before announcing his retirement.

Toward the end of the video clip, Chase admitted that Burrow is a decent hooper:

Let me not hype him up now, but he’s pretty decent at basketball, I am not gonna lie. He’s gotta nice little jumper; he gives me JJ Redick vibes… real smooth.

But Chase made it clear a one-on-one basketball session will end with enjoying the spoils of victory. He joked:

I will still clamp him though.

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Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Burrow discuss their goal for the 2026 season

In a different segment of the episode, Chase asked Burrow if he had any personal goals he wanted to fulfill in 2026. Burrow bluntly replied: “Man, I just wanna win this year.” Chase promptly agreed.

"Never Going To The NBA" - Joe Burrow Roasts Ja’Marr Chase's Basketball Skills
Joe Burrow (Image via IMAGO)

Both Burrow and Chase are elite players in their respective positions. With them on the team, the Bengals don’t have to sweat too much about scoring points.

But injuries have cost the Bengals valuable ground on other teams. In 2023, Burrow injured his throwing wrist and could not finish the season. Last year, he underwent surgery after suffering a turf toe injury. It kept him out for nearly three months. The Bengals won just 6 games (Burrow won 5 in eight appearances).

When he played, the Bengals offense ranked among the league’s best. In 2024, Burrow led the league in pass attempts (652), completions (460), passing yards (4918), and touchdowns (43). Chase bagged the triple crown. He caught 127 passes on 1775 targets for 1708 yards and scored 17 touchdowns. Teammate Tee Higgins had 73 receptions for 911 yards and 10 TDs.

But the defense has been an issue. Over the last three years, the Bengals defense has languished at the bottom of nearly every NFL metric. Cincinnati made some big offseason additions to the defense, and Burrow believes the roster already looks better than in previous years. Burrow said:

I think we have a really good team that… has a chance to win every game that we step foot on the field for… I don’t know about you, but I can really feel in my bones, in my soul, in OTAs… You know we brought in a lot of the right guys… people with the right mindset to go and chase this goal of winning the Super Bowl and winning as many games as we can and be the best possible team that we can. I felt it from our D-line; I felt it from our defense.

The Bengals traded for All-Pro nose tackle Dexter Lawrence, signed Super Bowl-winning edge Boye Mafe to a three-year, $60 million deal, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen to a two-year contract, and signed safety Bryan Cook to a three-year contract worth more than $40 million.

The Bengals went unbeaten in preseason. In the second week of September, they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the season’s first fixture.

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