Quick Hits | Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins Welcome Joe Flacco With Open Arms: ‘He’s Still Getting It Out There’

T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who has caught a touchdown pass from Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco, mused the other day how current Bengals wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins must have smiles on their faces now that Flacco is their quarterback.

But how about Flacco? He must be absolutely giddy.

In his 17 previous seasons, Flacco has been with five wide receivers who had at least 73 catches. (If you said Kamar Allen was one of them, take a bow.)

In his 18th season, Flacco joins Chase and Higgins with their combined seven seasons of at least 73 catches.

Chase and Higgins met the media Thursday at the end of Flacco: Day Three, and they’re all in being teamed up with the veteran’s big arm.

First, they had to believe it.

Higgins called Chase Tuesday to say he saw the trade on X. Chase said, ‘You’re B.S.ing.’ An hour later, head coach Zac Taylor, who wasn’t B.S.ing, called Chase with the news.

“I appreciate the organization trying to make this work. So we’ve got to make it work,” Chase said. “They just see that we’ve got a chance. Defense is doing a good enough job to help us out. Ultimately, we’ve got to have plays in space. That’s what they’ve seen. That’s what they wanted to keep going. They’ve just given us an opportunity to make more of those plays happen.”

Both Chase and Higgins referred to Flacco as “an all-time great.”

“First time I’ve ever had a QB like this,” said Chase of the 40-year-old Flacco. “He’s still got an arm. I mean, he’s still getting it out there. We’re going to see more when game time comes. That’s when you really get to see everything. But for right now, he’s throwing pretty good balls, and they’re not badly placed or anything like that.”

In Chase, Flacco gets to throw to a guy who won the receiving triple crown last year. He has thrown to a triple crown winner before, but it was nine years after Steve Smith Sr. won it when Flacco threw him 79 balls for the 2014 Ravens.

“I knew him because he was on the team that had Ray Lewis and Ed Reed,” Higgins said. “I was messing with some of the guys. I was like, ‘Oh, he was in the league when we were getting in trouble for being outside with the streetlights on.'”