Former Jaguars players show their true colors reacting to Ja’Marr Chase’s concussion from win over Bengals
Ja’Marr Chase left the Cincinnati Bengals’ loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars with a concussion after an illegal facemask tackle. Two former Jaguars players had their own take on the hit, and it says a lot about them.
Former Jacksonville Jaguars players Tom McManus and Jimmy Smith each had some revealing comments about what happened to Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase following the Jaguars’ 22-17 win over Cincinnati.
Chase suffered a concussion after being tackled illegally by his facemask by Jacksonville cornerback Jarrian Jones. Chase’s head twisted away from where his momentum was carrying him. On his way to the ground, linebacker Ventrell Miller then hit him on his way down to the ground. Chase’s helmet then violently smashed the turf.
It was a scary moment for both teams, and the Bengals lost their best offensive weapon on the play. After sleeping on it, both McManus and Smith chose to publicly comment on Chase’s concussion caused by an illegal tackle that was penalized.
What Tom McManus and Jimmy Smith said about the hit on Ja’Marr Chase
McManus posted to X/Twitter Monday morning, “Great job on [Ja’Marr] Chase. You don’t want to ruin his career. Just want to ruin his day. Mission accomplished.”
Smith replied to his former teammate, “We beat him up.”
The Jags didn’t bruise one of Chase’s muscles. They didn’t sprain one of his joints. Even if they did something of that nature, applauding the injuring of another player on its own is quite telling.
They gave him a brain injury that took him out of the game. It happened illegally, too, with a facemask penalty attached to the play.
McManus went on to characterize Chase’s concussion as a “little headache.”
Minimizing concussions of any kind is certainly a choice
The British Medical Journal released a study leading up to the 2026 regular season revealing at least 25% of former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head injuries and concussions. 25% is considered on the “low end,” per the study’s lead author, Dr. Daniel Daneshvar. The true rate “is somewhere in the middle” of 25% and the maximum possible prevalence of 97%, per Daneshvar.
CTE isn’t anything to brush over, and it hasn’t been for quite some time. That’s what makes the “mission accomplished” line so hard to stomach. It’s one thing to give respect to effort and hustle against a key player who was all over the scouting report. It’s another thing entirely to know what happened as a result of the play, and to celebrate it.
McManus is still involved with Jacksonville as a local radio host. Smith is one of the best players in franchise history. Both names carry weight with the fan base, and know firsthand what players put their bodies through on Sundays. Smith played the same position as Chase, which makes his part in this even harder to understand.
Cincinnati will now have Chase go through the concussion protocol. As for McManus and Smith, their words are out there. They had a chance to talk about a big win for Jacksonville, and with that chance, they commended their former team for concussing a star player.
