GH: Do you have a favorite catch from this year?
JC: Probably one of Flacco’s speed-out routes to the field. I want to say one of the Green Bay catches. A touchdown, actually, now that I’m thinking about it.
GH: That’s with a guy you barely had any reps with.
JC: First practice, first everything that game.
GH: Zac (Taylor) said he figured that going into the Thursday night game against Pittsburgh, his second game, you had had five live reps with Flacco.
JC: I’m not sure we had that. I’m not even sure we had that for real because that week was so fast. I think we had a walkthrough that Tuesday on the field, and that was the only time we had anything.
GH: Then you had 16 catches with no practice with a guy. That doesn’t make sense.
JC: Just feeding it to me. Just giving me opportunities.
GH: Do you think you’re the best player in the league?
JC: If not the best, one of the best, of course.
GH: Who would the others be?
JC: I don’t know. I don’t rank anybody, but I know I’m for sure there.
GH: Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
JC: Not really. Not off the top of my head. Really more personal goals than anything.
GH: Anything you can talk about?
GH: The most interesting thing about you this year was your progression as a leader. It seemed to go through a couple of different stages. When you became captain at the beginning of the year. Then when Joe (Burrow) went down. You had the incident where you were suspended, and you went through something there, too. It just seems to have been an interesting year that way.
JC: Yeah, it was. It was a lot overall. Just overall just a crazy season. Crazy season, crazy outcome, just crazy opportunities. I had crazy situations in general. But I think that’s what makes me. That’s what makes my character, what makes me who I am, how people look at me.
JC: I’m Ja’Marr Chase. It’s hard to say who I am. Everybody can paint their picture, but I’m not really here to paint a picture for them, you know?
GH: How have you changed as a leader since you first got the captain’s C?
JC: Without leading by example all the time. I’m one of those guys that leads by just my play. But instead of leading by my play, you can lead vocally. I think that was the biggest thing once I got the captain role and embraced it finally. That was the biggest thing for me,
GH: When did you finally embrace it?
JC: Around the time Trey (Hendrickson) was going through his situations with his injuries, or right before his injuries, or something like that. Around that time.
GH: You felt like you needed somebody vocal?
JC: No. I mean, I had conversations with other players about situations. Myself and them included. I think it was just the perfect time for me to do that.
GH: So it wasn’t when Joe went down, it was when Trey went down.
JC: It was when Joe went down, too. It forced me to have to talk when Joe went down. But the whole situation forced me to talk, period.
GH: Do you like doing it?
JC: I don’t mind. I mean, I don’t mind. At the end of day, I feel like it just gives me a better way to use my words on how I want to speak. I always talk all the time. To reporters and the public. To the team? No, not usually.
GH: You spoke to the team after one game, I can’t remember which one.
GH: That was a big moment for you, wasn’t it? The first time you had talked in front of the team. (After the Sept. 29 Monday night loss in Denver.)
JC: That wasn’t a big moment. Just the first time I did something like that.
GH: I guess you felt like you had to.
JC: No, emotions just got the best of me. I wanted to emotionally get it off my chest.
GH: Do you think it helped the team?
JC: I don’t think so. That’s why I don’t talk. Right there. I’m not a speeching guy. I’m not the motivation-speech type of dude.
GH: Are you more one-on-one with guys?
JC: I’d rather listen than talk for real.
GH: I remember the week after you were suspended, you went over to Chase Brown’s locker on, I think Wednesday, and told him how well he had played. Would you have done that if you weren’t a captain?
JC: I probably would have. It all depends on the situation because I was suspended, too, that was the biggest thing.
GH: Did the suspension impact you in any way?
JC: No. not really. I was just bored. I had nothing to do for the first time during the season.
GH: You must have been pissed you missed a game.
JC: It did a little bit. Missed out on some opportunities. Some situations I wanted to see.
GH: Did it impact the way you comport yourself on the field?
JC: No, no, not, really. It didn’t. I just didn’t talk for two games, maybe.
JC: Yeah, didn’t talk for the first two games I got back.
JC: There was a lot of attention on me during the whole time, especially when I got back. So I was just chilling.
