Football

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase has huge expectations for himself ahead of his return to the lineup against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

Chase, who has missed the past four games with a hairline hip fracture, said the following about his return Thursday when speaking to reporters: "I don't think I can be stopped, if I'm being honest. I'm out there playing football, playing my game. So when I'm in a rhythm, on a roll and I'm just playing, you know the timing's there and I'm just playing football."

During a Week 6 win over the New Orleans Saints, Chase suffered the injury, but he returned during that game and also played the following week in a win over the Atlanta Falcons.

Despite being less than 100 percent, Chase combined for 15 receptions for 262 yards and four touchdowns in those contests. He landed on the shelf, but the Bengals were able to stay afloat with a 3-1 record while he was out.

Now, Chase says he is feeling "great," which is potentially bad news for a Chiefs defense he torched twice last season.

In a 34-31 regular-season win over KC in Chase's rookie year, he went off to the tune of 11 receptions for 266 yards and three scores, marking one of the signature performances of his Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign.

Then, in a 27-24 win by Cincinnati over Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game, Chase had a more modest six catches for 54 yards, but he once again scored a touchdown.

Chase is perhaps the biggest key to the Bengals beating the Chiefs for the third time in two seasons and improving Cincinnati's overall record this season to 8-4.

Quarterback Joe Burrow is at his best when he has his full allotment of weapons, and on Sunday he will have the benefit of throwing to Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd.

The Chiefs have the best record in the AFC this season at 9-2, but if Chase has one of his typical performances, it will open the door for the Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and other teams to vie for the No. 1 seed.

Flag football will replace the standard NFL Pro Bowl game in 2023, but it won't just be one game. It won't be two either.

The NFL announced three flag football games will take place Sunday, Feb. 5, as part of the Pro Bowl Games, a weeklong series of competitions between the AFC and NFC.

In addition to flag football, the league announced three separate competitions set for Sunday:

• Gridiron Gauntlet: A full-field relay race between six AFC players and six NFC players.
  
• Move the Chains: An offensive and defensive lineman strength-and-speed competition.
  
• Best Catch Finals: Two fan-selected winners from Thursday’s skills competition will compete for the title of "Best Catch."

The flag football games will be seven-on-seven competitions, featuring 20-minute games split into 10-minute halves. Games will take place on a 50-yard field and feature standard 10-yard end zones. Touchdowns will count for six points, and teams will then have the opportunity for a one-point conversion from the 5-yard line.

The Pro Bowl Games will also have a skills competition that takes place Thursday, Feb. 2, that will include a cumulative scoring element set to be announced at a later date. Further details on the skills competitions and the week's schedule are expected to be released in the coming months.

The NFL announced a revamping of the Pro Bowl in September after years of concerns from players about the safety of the exhibition and complaints from fans about the low quality of play.

By revamping the event and making it more of a celebration, the NFL hopes it can rejuvenate both fan and player excitement in the contest.

An NFL executive believes the Green Bay Packers may not have been aware of wide receiver Davante Adams' true impact before trading him to the Las Vegas Raiders during the offseason.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, an anonymous NFL personnel executive said the Packers "perhaps didn't realize what their identity was," which was for quarterback Aaron Rodgers to throw the ball up to Adams when a play was needed on offense.

The exec noted that the decision to trade Adams "did not work," and that Green Bay should have kept its No. 1 wideout for Rodgers' "peace of mind."

Rodgers and the Green Bay offense have been shells of their former selves this season, which is why the Packers have been arguably the most disappointing team in the NFL with a 4-8 record.

While Rodgers was NFL MVP in both 2020 and 2021, the 18-year veteran has largely looked average this season, completing 64.8 percent of his passes for 2,682 yards, 21 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Much of that seemingly has to do with a lack of established weapons. Without Adams in the fold, Rodgers has had to lean on Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Sammy Watkins and rookies Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs at receiver, although most of them have missed significant time due to injury.

That, in turn, has caused Rodgers to hold the ball longer than usual, and it has resulted in him getting sacked 24 times in 12 games.

Adams isn't enjoying much team success either this season, playing for the 4-7 Raiders, but he has continued to be a stud individually with Derek Carr throwing him the ball.

Through 11 games, Adams has made 71 grabs for 999 yards and 10 touchdowns, putting him in the mix to possibly be a first-team All-Pro for the third year in a row.

Adams has finished with double-digit touchdowns three years in a row and six of the past seven seasons, plus he had well over 100 catches in both 2020 and 2021, and a career-high 1,553 yards last season.

It is now blatantly obvious that Adams was the one who made the Green Bay offense go, and it is no coincidence that the Packers now look like a cellar-dwelling team after three straight 13-win seasons from 2019 to 2021.

It's hard to find fault with anything the Philadelphia Eagles have done amid building a 10-1 record this season, but at least one executive from an NFC team has questions about their ability to maximize A.J. Brown with their current quarterback.

Speaking to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the anonymous executive questioned Jalen Hurts as a franchise quarterback who is capable of taking advantage of everything Brown can do.

"I don't really believe in Jalen Hurts like some others do—are you getting a full return on Brown considering the quarterback they have?" the NFC executive said. "That's a legitimate question."

There's no arguing the addition of Brown has opened up elements of the passing game that were missing for Hurts in 2021. The fourth-year wide receiver leads the team 831 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.

Hurts has made huge strides as a quarterback from 2021 to 2022. He has increased his completion percentage by six points (61.3 to 67.3), rating by more than 18 points (87.2 to 105.6) and QBR by almost 20 points (48.5 to 68.2). His 17 touchdown passes in 11 games are one more than he had in 15 starts last season.

There has been a shift in how Hurts is succeeding recently. He's only thrown for 343 yards in the past two games, but has made up for it with 243 yards on 33 carries. His 157 yards on the ground against the Green Bay Packers in Week 12 were the most by a quarterback in Eagles history.

Hurts only had 26 rushing attempts in the previous four games before Week 11. The 24-year-old may never be regarded as one of the best pocket passers in the NFL, but the results this season have inspired confidence he can be a high-level starter for a long time.

Having a true No. 1 receiver like Brown has elevated Hurts' game. Not every elite wideout gets the opportunity to play with an elite quarterback, but if the pieces fit to make the team successful, no one is going to bat an eye.

The Denver Broncos don't plan on making a change at quarterback amid Russell Wilson's ongoing struggles, at least at the moment.

Head coach Nathaniel Hackett told reporters on Wednesday that Wilson won't be benched "right now" as the team looks to find answers for its disappointing offense.

The Broncos are in an almost impossible situation with Wilson right now. They have so much invested in him that it's in their best interest to see if he can play his way out of this season-long slump.

It's also in Hackett's best interest to see if he can work with Wilson to turn things around. There have already been several rumors and reports about his future as Broncos head coach amid the team's 3-8 start,

Peter King wrote in his Football Morning in America column this week that he will be "extremely surprised" if Hackett isn't one-and-done in Denver.

There may not be anything Hackett can do to save his job at this point. Barring a dramatic turnaround and a lot of help from other teams in the AFC, the Broncos are going to miss the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.

The Broncos offense under Hackett and with Wilson at quarterback is on pace to be the lowest-scoring unit in the NFL since 2000:

Wilson signed a five-year, $245 million contract extension with the Broncos in August that doesn't even begin until the 2024 season. He has dead-cap hits of $107 million in 2023 and $85 million in 2024, per Spotrac.

After being one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL during his 10 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson has fallen off a cliff in his first year in Denver. The 34-year-old is completing 58.9 percent of his attempts for 2,369 yards with eight touchdowns and five interceptions in 10 starts.

If Hackett does want to bench Wilson, Brett Rypien is the Broncos' backup quarterback. He started against the New York Jets in Week 7 when Wilson was out with a hamstring injury.

Rypien went 24-of-46 for 225 yards with no touchdowns and one interception in a 16-9 loss.