Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green will not make his 2019 season debut on Sunday after all, as the veteran pass-catcher told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com (Twitter link). Green’s experienced ankle swelling during Cincinnati’s walkthrough on Wednesday, and the issue is serious enough to prevent him from playing against the Ravens in Week 10.

Green, of course, hasn’t played a single snap this season after suffering ankle damage during training camp. The Bengals opted not to put him on injured reserve to start the year, which would have mandated an absence of at least eight games. Green, clearly, has already missed that requisite amount of time, meaning Cincinnati has been playing a man down all year long.

The Bengals are reportedly not close to an extension with Green, who will become a free agent at season’s end. The former first-round pick has been adamant that he doesn’t want to be assigned the franchise tag next offseason, and it’s unclear if Cincinnati will honor that request.

“I don’t really care about (the contract negotiations),” Green told Jay Morrison of The Athletic (Twitter link). “If they’re worried about me not playing or not being healthy, then there’s 32 teams out there. I’m not really worried about that situation.”

Green became the NFL’s highest-paid receiver in 2015 after inking a four-year, $60MM extension, but his $15MM average annual value now ranks 11th at the position. The former No. 4 overall selection will be 32 years old when the 2020 campaign gets underway, and Green’s recent injury history — at least six missed games in 2016, 2018, and 2019 — will certainly factor into his asking price, but he should still be expected to command a lucrative multi-year deal if he does hit the free agent market.

A.J. Green has made it clear that he does not want to be franchise-tagged by the Bengals in 2020, but he is open to working out a new long-term deal. However, Green and the Bengals are not close in extension talks, sources tell Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link).

Green hasn’t played a single snap this year after suffering ankle damage during the preseason, and when he does return in Week 10 following Cincinnati’s bye, he’ll be catching passes from someone other than Andy Dalton. Fourth-round rookie Ryan Finley is taking over at quarterback for the Bengals, giving Green a different signal-caller as he enters a stretch of games that will strongly affect his market value next spring.

Green became the NFL’s highest-paid receiver in 2015 after inking a four-year, $60MM extension, but his $15MM average annual value now ranks 11th at the position. The former No. 4 overall selection will be 32 years old when the 2020 campaign gets underway, and Green’s recent injury history — at least six missed games in 2016, 2018, and 2019 — will certainly factor into his asking price, but he should still be expected to command a lucrative multi-year deal.

If the Bengals do franchise Green, they’ll be locking in a fully guaranteed one-year salary in the $18.5MM range. If Green remains adamant about not accepting the tag, he could potentially hold out next spring and summer, creating a dicey situation between a franchise icon and a Cincinnati organization currently struggling through yet another dismal season.

Bengals star A.J. Green says he’ll be ready to return on Nov. 9 against the Ravens (Twitter link via Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic). Meanwhile, he says he’s not on board with the possibility of being franchise tagged in the offseason. 

It’s a mix of good news and not-necessarily-good news for the Bengals. Obviously, getting the star wide receiver back in time for Ryan Finley’s first start is a step in the right direction. Green believes that the Bengals would not be 0-8 if he was healthy and it’s hard to argue. The Bengals have other weaknesses, but Green’s absence has been glaring in an offense that has relied on him for years.

Green’s franchise tag concerns, however, could signal trouble in Cincinnati. Before the injury, the Bengals and Green were unable to come to terms on a long-term extension that likely would have kept him in the fold for the rest of his career. Now, Green is making it known that he wants to restart talks ASAP. For reference, this year’s franchise tag for wide receivers projects to be around the $18.5MM range.

Green’s last full season was in 2017, when he compiled 75 receptions for 1,078 yards and eight touchdowns. On the whole, he’s been one of the game’s most productive WRs since entering the league in 2011. Green earned Pro Bowl honors in each of his first seven seasons and has topped 1,000 yards in six different seasons.

It could be a while before the Bengals get A.J. Green back on the field. The star wide receiver says he still has “a ways to go” before making his return, as Laurel Pfahler of the Dayton Daily News writes. 

[RELATED: Bengals Won’t Trade Green]

“If I can go, I can go,” Green said. “If I can’t, I can’t. It’s no big thing. Like I said from Day 1, if I’m healthy enough to play then I’m going to play. Right now, I still have a ways to go…There’s no need to rush this thing. Like I said from Day 1, I’m gonna have to feel good to get back out there to where I can play at a high level to where I know I can. Just don’t want to rush it back like I did with my toe (last year).”

Green has yet to play this year and the Bengals have yet to win a game. They’re 0-7 after Sunday’s 27-17 loss to the Jaguars and one can’t help but wonder if they’d at least be in the win column by now if Green was on the field – especially with an opportunity to exploit the Jaguars’ Jalen Ramsey-less defense.

There has been progress for Green, but also new setbacks. Green participated in individual drills ahead of the team’s Week 6 game, but was unable to practice before the Jags’ game. Between this ankle issue and last year’s toe injury, Green has missed eleven straight games.

Green is in his contract year, but the Bengals say he won’t be moved before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline. Even if the Bengals did want to trade him for draft capital, it’s not clear what they could get for him, given his current condition.

With the Bengals 0-5, trade rumors have surfaced regarding their veterans. Some execs believe A.J. Green could fetch Cincinnati a first-round pick, and the seven-time Pro Bowler returned to practice Thursday. But Green is not on the trade block.

Zac Taylor confirmed Thursday the Bengals “are not trading that guy,” per The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. (on Twitter). Less than three weeks remain until the Oct. 29 deadline, but the Bengals’ current stance stands to continue the franchise’s conservative nature on this front.

Green’s anchored the Bengals’ offense for nearly the entirety of the 2010s but has struggled with injuries over the past few years. The ankle/foot malady Green suffered in late July will cause him to miss Week 6. By Sunday, the 31-year-old wideout will have been absent for 19 of the Bengals’ past 41 games.

The only wide receiver to begin his career 7-for-7 in Pro Bowls, Green has one season remaining on his contract. He and the Bengals have tried for months to come to terms on an extension, but the sides have failed on this front. The Bengals re-signed Tyler Boyd earlier this year.

Going through a Larry Fitzgerald-type of career appeals to the Bengals’ ninth-year talent, and it appears Green will not have to worry about a midseason trade spoiling his chance of finishing his career with the team that drafted him. That said, the Bengals are well off the contention map and would almost certainly be able to recoup a Day 2 pick (at worst) for their top pass catcher. An argument exists for the team to move Green, but the traditional franchise is not ready to do consider it. This also raises the stakes for the Bengals completing an extension.

After weeks of rule outs and no timetables for his return, Bengals receiver A.J. Green took a step in the right direction Thursday. Green returned for a “very limited practice,” according to Geoff Hobson of the team’s official site (Twitter link). As Hobson notes, this is his first time getting any work in since he got hurt back on July 27th. 

In a follow-up tweet, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network notes that Green has a chance to play next week. Green “made some cuts, did some sidesteps over pads and caught a couple balls” in the period of practice open to the media, per a tweet from Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. He’s already been ruled out for Cincy’s Week 6 game against the Ravens. At 0-5, it’s looking like a lost season for the Bengals, which has led to a lot of speculation that they’ll look to trade Green, an impending free agent.

Just earlier today Green said he hadn’t heard anything about a potential trade, and he recently expressed a desire to have a career like his mentor Larry Fitzgerald has had with the Cardinals. In three of the past four seasons now, Green has missed significant time due to injury. He’s still one of the league’s better receivers when healthy, but he’ll be 32 next season, which complicates things. He’s reportedly been casually discussing an extension with the Bengals for months now, but the two sides are apparently pretty far apart on compensation.

Green suffered a severe ankle injury toward the beginning of camp, and recently there have been rumblings that they may look to keep him out past the Week 9 bye. The fact that he returned to practice today suggests he’ll be back in either Week 7 or 8, perhaps to better showcase him for a deadline trade. If they’re not going to trade him they could really use him as soon as possible, as fellow receiver John Ross was recently placed on IR.