In his waning years at LSU, Les Miles’ talent evaluation might have been just a bit off.

Miles, according to Ja’Marr Chase, told the star Bengals receiver that he would eventually be a cornerback.

“Les Miles told me I couldn’t play receiver when I was coming out of school, so that was something I had on my shoulders coming up,” Chase said Wednesday.

Miles was recruiting Chase, who gave pledges to Kansas and Florida before landing in Baton Rouge. A native of Metairie, La., Chase was a four-star receiver in high school, and eventually committed to Ed Orgeron at LSU

Miles would have been recruiting him early on in the process prior to getting fired in 2016.

“Les Miles told me he thought I could play cornerback, I wasn’t really in full position at receiver yet,” Chase said. “So I just kept working at my craft [in the] offseason — waking up early in the mornings to work out. I just kept focused.”

According to a story in The Athletic from 2019, things went as far as Miles getting Chase to participate in a drill for cornerbacks. Chase walked out of the drill.

That evaluation was, uh, wrong. Chase became the best receiver on a national title-winning LSU team in 2019, and has hooked up with his college quarterback, Joe Burrow, for a massive rookie season with the Bengals. After 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season, Chase has 14 catches for 225 yards in the playoffs headed into Sunday’s AFC title game against the Chiefs.

Meanwhile, Miles was fired from coaching Kansas in early 2021 following allegations of misconduct with female students.