Some moderately good news for Bengals fans. Star receiver A.J. Green will not start the season on injured reserve, per Geoff Hobson of the team’s official site (Twitter link).
New Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor apparently said he “feels like he’ll be back before eight weeks.” While it’s good to know Green isn’t going on IR, that doesn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement of his health. Last we heard a month ago, the feeling was that he would miss a few regular season games with his ankle injury. If he had started the year on injured reserve, he would’ve had to have missed at least the first eight.
Green is important enough to the Bengals’ offense that it’s obviously worth it to save his roster spot for a few weeks rather than making him miss two months. Green is still one of the league’s better receivers when healthy, but he’s 31 now and dealing with a significant injury for the second straight season. In 2018, foot issues limited the Georgia product to just nine games. The Bengals will be leaning heavily on Tyler Boyd, who they extended this offseason, in his absence.
Adriel Jeremiah Green. Get healthy my man