A.J. Green doesn’t appear to be that close to returning from his ankle injury, and the Bengals aren’t going anywhere this season at 0-4. Naturally, there’s been a lot of buzz about Cincy potentially dealing Green to a contender at the trade deadline, and talk that Green could get frustrated with the direction of the franchise. That being said, don’t expect to see Green demanding a trade anytime soon.
In an interesting new piece, Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic sat down with Green, who certainly didn’t seem like someone looking to leave town. “Yeah, you always want that,” Green said of playing his entire career with one team. “Nobody will ever value you more than the guys that drafted you. You want to leave a legacy.”
Dehner writes that one of Green’s mentors is Larry Fitzgerald, and the two receivers have been close since early in Green’s career. Fitzgerald, of course, is in his 16th season with the Cardinals, and is a franchise icon. “For him, he is the Arizona Cardinals legend. He can do anything he wants in the state of Arizona and people are going to stay behind him,” Green said. “It’s so hard now, you see everybody that’s not going well where they want a trade. I think Larry did it the right way,” he continued.
It doesn’t sound like Green wants out, but the Bengals will still need to pay the impending free agent if they want him around. In a separate piece, Dehner notes that Green’s camp has “been negotiating a potential contract extension for months, but both sides are having trouble finding common ground,” and that talks have been “complicated by the lucrative deals signed by Julio Jones and Michael Thomas.”
Green will be 32 next season, and has missed significant time with injuries in three of the past four seasons. Still one of the best receivers in the league when healthy, the Bengals will be forced to make a tough call on whether they want to move on and embrace a full-on rebuild, or keep Green around to be their Fitzgerald. Right now it looks as if Green will return a game or two before the deadline, and Cincy could use that action to showcase him. Green has been with the Bengals since 2011, when they drafted him fourth overall out of Georgia.
It’s so rare to hear a player be a class act and not whine about pay or his teams position. Being a big Bengals fan, AJ does deserve better
Amen. No one deserves to play for Mikey Brown.
At 32 and coming off of several short seasons, if he thinks he is getting Thomas or Julio money then he won’t be a Bengal for life.