Clark Judge
CINCINNATI --
A.J. Green says he's not an elite wide receiver, but he's wrong. He's among the game's top three or four and should've been voted to last year's All-Pro team.
Guaranteed, he will be this year, and here's why: Because he finally has support.
With the additions of rookies
Tyler Eifert and
Giovani Bernard and the return of wide receiver
Mohamed Sanu, Green has the playmakers around him he did not at the end of last season, and I know what you're thinking: So what? Well, so they could relax the suffocating double-coverages that kept Green from scoring in all but one of his last seven starts.
"We've just got more options now," said Green, "It's welcome, but it doesn't matter to me. I take the pressure as it comes."
Unfortunately for him, he took more than his fair share down the stretch last season -- especially after Sanu bowed out because of a season-ending foot injury. With no other reliable option, the Bengals' passing game sputtered, with no one affected more than Green, who wasn't targeted once in the first half of the club's playoff loss to Houston.
"The whole thing [near the end of the season] was that teams were trying to take me away," Green said. "Was it frustrating? Just a little. But sometimes that's part of the game. If you want to be a great receiver you have to learn how to get open."
A couple of things there jump out at you, with the first that statement about "if you want to be a great receiver ..." Sorry, but Green already is there. Yeah, I know, he's been in the league only two years, but look what he's done in that time:
Become the first NFL player to reach 100 catches, 1,500 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns in his first 20 games and only the seventh player in Pro Bowl history to score three times in one game ... which happened in January.
Then there's that part about learning "to get open." If Green hadn't solved that mystery the Bengals wouldn't have reached the playoffs the past two seasons. There's no more valuable weapon on this team than A.J. Green, and if he's not open the Bengals aren't winning -- which is why the arrivals of Eifert and Bernard are so important to the future of the Bengals.
"He's definitely an elite receiver," said teammate
Leon Hall, one of the game's top cornerbacks. "I'm kind of in awe of how talented he is."
He's not alone. I remember when Green was at the 2011 NFL scouting combine, and an NFC general manager told me he'd rank him among the league's top six receivers ... and that was before the guy was even drafted.
It's no coincidence that when Green and
Andy Dalton showed up, the Bengals showed up in the playoffs -- reaching them in both of their first two seasons. So don't tell me A.J. Green isn't already a top-shelf wide receiver.
Because he is.
"No," said Green, "I'm not there yet. This is only my third year, and I have a lot more learning to do. The biggest thing at this position is consistency -- to keep getting better each year and don't regress -- and that's my goal. I've been in the league two years so I still have a lot of time. When I get to Year Six, maybe then I can say I'm one of those receivers."
Or maybe he can say it this year. Green last season had scoring receptions in all but one of his first 10 starts and three 100-yard performances in his first six, so there goes the consistency angle. He insists, however, that he needs to work on becoming "more of a student" so he can better communicate with teammates and Dalton, and, OK, let's give him that.
But talk about picky. That's what experience is all about, and the more you watch A.J. Green the more you realize he's not a star waiting to happen; he's already there -- regardless of what he acknowledges.
When I asked Hall what part of Green's game impresses him most he answered with one word -- "talent" -- and that talent was evident again at last week's OTA when Green made a remarkable, over-the-head catch that had coaches talking a week later.
Most observers thought the pass was uncatchable, yet Green somehow ran it down, stretched to catch it with both hands at knee level, somehow shifted the ball to his right hand and touched the ground with his left before straightening up. Then he turned around and punted the ball 50 yards.
"He realized it was a great catch," Hall said. "That's why he punted. He knew it was kind of special."
So why doesn't he realize he's kind of special, too? Answer: Because that's not A.J. Green. He is reluctant to endorse himself and is less likely to draw attention to himself. He doesn't salsa in the end zone. He doesn't mock defenders. And he hasn't punctuated a touchdown by proposing to a cheerleader.
"That's not me," he said. "I just go out and play football. One of the greatest basketball players to ever play is Tim Duncan, and you don't hear him. But you can see what he does on the court. So that's one of the things I look at. I'm just going to go out there and play football, and you all [the media] can be the judge of that."
Fair enough. We will. And I say you're about to hear a lot more about A.J. Green and the
Cincinnati Bengals.
"What is this -- his third year?" asked Hall. "With the elite receivers, it's always a question of how long can you do it? But I have confidence in the fact that if he stays healthy and he keeps working as he has been he'd have no choice but to call himself an elite receiver."
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