Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase ranked as NFL’s top QB-WR combo already

The Cincinnati Bengals had hoped they’d struck gold by pairing Joe Burrow with Ja’Marr Chase, reuniting the LSU combo that ran wild on college football en route to a title.

Turns out they did.

Burrow looks elite after finally playing 17 pro games and Chase is off to the best start by a receiver ever.

And NFL.com’s Nick Shook, using Next Gen Stats, says the Burrow-Chase combo is the best QB-WR tandem in the league already

“The intensely debated decision between drafting a top tackle to protect Joe Burrow and selecting the quarterback’s old running mate at LSU feels like it happened years ago. Burrow and Chase have formed an incredibly explosive duo in their first seven games together in the NFL, racking up 754 yards and six touchdowns on 35 completions. For you math wizards at home, that’s an average of 21.5 yards per reception, an incredible clip that has Chase atop all pass catchers in the metric. It’s built on the big play, of course, with Burrow and Chase teaming up to record more yards (354), yards after catch (91) and touchdowns (4) on deep passes (20-plus air yards) than any other duo in the NFL this season.”

That ranks ahead of the likes of Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp, Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins and Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams.

At some point, Chase will cool off as defenses get more creative with him. But either way, that’s the sort of company the Bengals had hoped the QB-WR duo would be in at some point — Burrow and Chase have just done it right away.