Geoff Hobson

Don't letJaMarr Chasefool you these days as the Bengals go through voluntary spring workouts in preparation for next week's mandatory minicamp.

Chase can roll his sleepy eyes to the media and talk about how he hates getting up in the morning. Or maybe gloss over his goals-on-the-mirror with the full-blanket Super Bowl pledge. And maybe with a shrug say he doesn't know much about the Bengals schedule, except forMadridandNew Years Eve.

But don't kid yourself.

"He's obsessed with being the best," saysJoey Boese, chief engineer of Bengals strength and conditioning.

This is why Ja'Marr Chase is who he is, and right now you could say he's the best football player in the solar system and not get laughed all the way to Pluto:

"The guy prepares for the season year-round," Boese says. "We really see it when he leaves for a little bit of time, and he comes back. There is no legs getting under him. He's ready to go. Full speed all the time."

That was last week in his first practices of 2026. First play of seven-on-seven? No. 9 to No. 1 in your contacts, and it keeps popping up. No rust. Just trust in those hands that have claimed 520 career catches, the most in the history of the NFL by a player 25 years old, per Pro Football Reference.

"Ja'Marr never misses a beat," Boese says. "It's part of his lifestyle."

Enter Mo Wells, the old LSU hurdler and sprinter who trains Chase when he's not at Paycor Stadium. Wells, the director of Pro & Elite Sports at Elite Performance, works out of Dallas. But not when he travels with Chase.

When Chase got away to Cabo a few weeks back, Wells went with him as they kept up the daily 2.5-hour routine. As deadly competitive as the gunslingers of yesteryear, Chase's cold-blooded code is "Have trainer, will travel."

"I wish more guys would adopt that philosophy because you can do it both," Wells says. "Just get your work done first."

That's just it. Chase is not like most guys. Boese has never heard him say, "I need an off day, brother." Or, "I'm going to tone it down today."

"He makes our job easier," Boese says. "When your best player is one of your hardest workers, everyone else kind of falls in line.

"You can see him now vocally, kind of stepping up in that role. Players look up to him. 'Hey. That's Ja'Marr Chase.'"

Now six years in, Chase owns the place. If anyone knows how old Chase is, it's Wells, because they usually start to train just before or after Chase's March 1 birthday.

When he turned 26, Wells gifted him with a different agenda.

"I want to make sure as he gets older and older, his power stays high," Wells says. "That's something that he's really good at. Getting off the line, blowing by guys, getting a move, and giving a move, and being able to re-accelerate.

"We didn't do as much track and field work as we would normally do pre-OTA. We're saving it for post-OTA. I really focused a lot on our weight room so when you see him, he may look a little more chiseled."

A little leaner. A little more muscle mass. For instance, more resistant sled work. After watching him grind, Wells told Chase recently that he thinks his physical capabilities have room to grow.

"I think he has probably another two, three years before he gets to peak physical shape of what he can be," Wells says. "I think when he's closer to 28, 29, 30."

Astounding when you look at the numbers Chase already churns out of his 6-0, 205-pound vat of iron. He easily deadlifts an elite 500 pounds with the trap bar. Wells says in the seven years he's worked with him, Chase has hit the 99th percentile in ForceDeck, a sports science metric that tracks output.

And while Chase could stage annual Instagram fireworks with his unearthly squats, Wells is doing it for safety and not for show.

"We don't do too much of it. I believe in doing a lot of front squatting versus back squatting," Wells says. "He has a phenomenal front squat relative to his weight, probably around 315, 335 (pounds). I use that versus the back squat because it makes him stabilize his core much better. I'm not really keen on doing stuff to impress the internet. 'Oh, he can squat 700 pounds.' The risk versus reward on that is not worth it. I put him in positions to get the most bang for our buck."

And yet what makes Wells eyes pop is not the metrics but the man.

"I would say every offseason he impresses me with his focus. I'm not going to lie, it's not anything physical," Wells says. "He impresses me more and more with his focus each season, because he just gets better and better at being a pro. A lot of guys don't get it early, and a lot of guys, when they do get it, they get it when it's too late."

Even when Chase goes on vacation before training camp, it won't be too late to get a workout in. Wells figures there's one more trip left before camp. The post minicamp agenda looks to be less in the weight room and more on the field and track.

So Chase comes back looking exactly like the two-time All-Pro, Boese is done being surprised.

"We're getting to the point now that it's just this is who he is," Boese says. "A once-in-a generation kind of guy."