Ja’Marr Chase Names Denzel Ward and Patrick Surtain His Toughest Cornerbacks — But He’s Said Different Before
Ja’Marr Chase doesn’t hand out respect easily. Receivers rarely do — it’s a position built on swagger, and admitting a corner got the better of you isn’t part of the job description. So when Chase was asked point blank who gives him the most trouble, the fact that he answered without hesitation says something.
“Denzel Ward, Patrick Surtain, [those] are definitely the two guys by far,” Chase told NFL Network in comments posted Monday.
That’s a clean, direct answer from a receiver who has spent five seasons torching most of the cornerbacks lined up across from him. Chase has caught 520 passes for 6,837 yards and 54 touchdowns since entering the league, numbers that have earned him a Pro Bowl nod in every season he’s played. He led the NFL in both catches (127) and receiving yards (1,708) during his 2024 Triple Crown campaign. Guys who put up those numbers don’t usually admit anyone gives them trouble.
The Ward Answer Tracks. Surtain Is the New Part.
Ward showing up here isn’t a surprise. Chase sees him twice a year as a division rival, and the tape backs up the respect — Ward led the NFL with 19 pass breakups in 2024 and has made life difficult for Chase going back to 2021. That part of the answer has been consistent for years.
What’s worth noting is that Chase hasn’t always put Surtain in that same tier. Back in the summer of 2025, during an appearance on “The Sitdown w/ Malik Wright,” Chase was asked almost the identical question and named Ward as the “easy” choice for toughest cornerback — then rattled off a list of others that didn’t include Surtain at all. He mentioned Joey Porter Jr. and Jaire Alexander instead. Surtain, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year at the time, got left off entirely.
That’s not a contradiction so much as a shift in how Chase talks about it depending on the question. “Toughest matchup” and “best cornerbacks” aren’t identical prompts, and the two games between Chase and Surtain since that snub — including a stretch where Surtain held him to one catch on eight yards — probably did some of the talking. Surtain has also called Chase the hardest active receiver to cover, so the respect clearly runs both ways now.
Why This Matters Beyond a Compliment
None of this changes anything on paper. Chase is still going to line up against Ward twice a year as a Bengal, and Surtain only enters the picture if Cincinnati’s schedule or playoff bracket puts them there. But the timing lines up with a Bengals team trying to prove its 2025 collapse was a defensive problem, not an offensive one.
Cincinnati’s defense allowed the second-most yards per game in football last season and ranked among the league’s worst in points and rushing yards allowed. The front office responded by trading for Dexter Lawrence, signing Boye Mafe, and adding Jonathan Allen this offseason — the kind of overhaul that suggests the Bengals know exactly where last year went wrong. Chase and the passing game were never the issue. If Cincinnati’s new-look defense holds up even close to average, a receiver who already treats Ward and Surtain as the standard has a real shot at pushing Cincinnati back into the AFC North race.
The corner talk is a small moment in August. What it points to — a Bengals team betting its season on fixing the other side of the ball — is the bigger story here.
