The Cincinnati Bengals rookie wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase has been trending on social media on Thursday after a report surfaced about Chase's struggles in the preseason. His dropped passes have been quite noticeable and considering he was a top-five pick, Bengals fans have been rather concerned.

Early Thursday morning, ProFootballTalk released an article painting it out that Chase had claimed the NFL football is more difficult to catch than the ball used at the college level. In fact, PFT provided a quote of Chase describing the difference between the footballs used at each level:

“The ball is different because it is bigger. It doesn't have the white stripes on the side so you can't see the ball coming from the tip point so you actually have to look for the strings on the ball at the top, which is hard to see because whole ball is brown and you have the six strings that are white.”

That seems to be a simple explanation. However, PFT's headline for the article states, “Ja'Marr Chase: NFL ball is harder to catch than NCAA ball,” making it seem like a statement Chase made. The Bengals rookie receiver took to social media to clap back at PFT's reporting.

To be fair, Chase technically never claims the NFL ball is more difficult to catch. His statement is purely going over the minor differences. Although he's struggled throughout the offseason, this should have been expected. Ja'Marr Chase hasn't played meaningful football since he won the National Championship at LSU with Joe Burrow. That's well over a year ago, so the rust he's experiencing is normal.

The Bengals take on the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, which is a great matchup for Chase to get comfortable with the NFL's regular season. The Vikings don't have the best secondary, and the Bengals are likely to throw the ball often. Keep an eye on Ja'Marr Chase, as he should steadily improve as the season goes on.