Ja’Marr Chase reportedly opting out at LSU, entering 2021 NFL Draft
Ja’Marr Chase will opt-out of the 2020 season at LSU, enter the 2021 NFL Draft, per reports.
Look at any 2021 NFL mock draft and the first wide receiver coming off the board is likely Ja’Marr Chase out of LSU. Considering that he connected with Joe Burrow for 84 catches, 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns as part of the Tigers’ remarkable National Championship run last season, that shouldn’t be a surprise. But though the SEC is set to play in 2020, Chase may not give us an encore.
According to a report from Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, Chase is expected to opt-out of the 2020 season with LSU and enter the 2021 NFL Draft with a formal announcement to come on Monday.
Chase not returning for his junior season at LSU amid the COVID-19 pandemic continues what has been a long list of unique circumstances created for the 2020 season. Not only are the Big Ten and Pac-12 (among two other Group of 5 conferences) not set to play in the fall but Chase also joins other high-profile draft prospects, such as Miami’s Gregory Rousseau and Virginia Tech’s Caleb Farley, who made the personal decision to opt-out.
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There has to be some level of respect for players opting out, whatever their reasons might be. But as we look ahead to the 2021 NFL Draft, the question that is raised is what this decision will do to the wide receiver’s draft stock.
Opting out won’t affect Ja’Marr Chase’s stock in the 2021 NFL Draft.
For some players with draft hopes, weighing the decision to opt-out or not had to be incredibly difficult with so many factors in the equation. In the case of Ja’Marr Chase, however, it was honestly more surprising that he hadn’t already made this decision.
As mentioned, Chase is the consensus top wide receiver in the 2021 NFL Draft class. At 6-0, 208 pounds, he might not be the biggest or the fastest player at the position but he’s proven that he’s the best with what he did last season. There was truly nothing left for him to prove this year, especially if that also meant potentially putting his health at risk during the ongoing pandemic.
Moreover, you could make the argument that the LSU wide receiver had more to lose than to gain by returning. With Burrow now on the Cincinnati Bengals, the Tigers are set to start unproven Myles Brennan. And while a wide receiver can make a quarterback’s life easier, the truth is that bad quarterback play could’ve raised fallacies about Chase being a product of Burrow rather than a product of his own talents.
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LSU will surely feel the loss of Chase as, amid losing 40 percent of last year’s title-winning roster, the Tigers were counting on the wide receiver as a focal point of the offense. It could allow players like Terrace Marshall to establish himself as a high-end draft prospect in his own right, though. But in the case of Chase as an individual, this was an easy decision to make for his future.