As A.J. Green awaits to make his season debut, trade speculation continues to swirl. However, the wide receiver says that he hasn’t gotten word on any possibility of a trade from Bengals brass. 

“I tell everybody I haven’t heard anything,” Green told the team’s website. “I don’t fantasize about anything like that. I’m just trying to get healthy and go from there. I’m prepared for anything. A trade’s not going to change who I am. I’m still going to play. I’m still going to be A.J.”

Earlier this week, Green was ruled out for this Sunday’s contest against the Ravens, marking six missed games for the multiple-time Pro Bowler. No one knows when Green will be ready to play, but the club’s Week 9 bye should help. That is, if he’s still on the team.

The league’s trade deadline is days away and while it’s hard to imagine the Bengals without A.J. Green, we’ve been surprised before.

Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green has been ruled out for yet another week, coach Zac Taylor announced. Green is still expected to return, Taylor says, but his timetable remains murky. 

Here’s what we do know: Green won’t play against the Ravens this week. He’s still recovering from surgery to repair torn ligaments in his left ankle and will need more time before practicing, even though he shed his protective boot in September.

Green missed seven games last season. Already this season (including the Baltimore tilt), he’s down six games. It’s not what the 0-5 Bengals envisioned for this year, nor is it what Green envisioned as he looks ahead to free agency.

Green pushed for an extension prior to the season, but the two sides were unable to get anything done before training camp, when Green suffered the injury. Now, he’s in limbo – with a limp.

Green, one of the game’s most productive WRs since entering the league in 2011, earned Pro Bowl honors in each of his first seven seasons and has topped 1,000 yards six times.

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.

The Bengals will have to wait a little bit longer to get A.J. Green back on the field. The Bengals’ star wide receiver will miss at least another two weeks as he recovers from his ankle injury, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com hears. 

The Bengals opted against placing Green on injured reserve this year, believing that he would be able to return sooner than the mandatory eight weeks. It sounds like Green can still beat the half-season timetable, though he might cut it close. The Bengals are already four weeks into the season and Green will not be able to take the field until Week 7, at the earliest.

There’s also this to consider – the Bengals have a Week 9 bye, so there might be wisdom in holding Green out for a bit longer. At minimum, Green will be absent for tonight’s game against the Steelers, next week against the Cardinals, and the following contest against the Ravens. After that, Green will be re-evaluated to find out whether he can play against the Jaguars on October 20.

Green may also want to take his personal football future and finances into consideration. The two sides were unable to reach agreement on a contract extension this offseason, meaning that he is still ticketed for free agency in March.

Green, one of the game’s most talented wide receivers, finished out 2018 with career low totals of 46 grabs for 694 yards. Without Green, the Bengals are 0-3 thus far in 2019.

A.J. Green‘s initial timetable pointed to a return at some point during the Bengals’ September slate, and the Pro Bowl wide receiver expressed optimism earlier this month. But Green will not return for Week 4, and Zac Taylor indicated (via the Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Fay) he does not expect the veteran wideout to practice this week.

Green suffered an ankle injury, one that required a minor surgery, on July 27. At first, a six- to eight-week recovery timetable surfaced, with Taylor then saying “a couple” missed games was a likely scenario. Week 5 would stand to be Green’s earliest return date, but no practices leading up to Week 4 do not represent a good sign for that prospect.

“He’s certainly turned in the right direction. I don’t want to give any timeline – next week, the week after, week after that,” Taylor said. “It will be exciting when we get him back.”

The ninth-year receiver shed his walking boot barely six weeks after the injury, so this may not be cause for alarm yet. The Bengals opted not to place Green on IR. To justify this decision, the 31-year-old standout would need to return in the next couple of weeks.

The Bengals are 0-3 without Green this season and were 1-6 without him in 2018. By next week, Green will have missed 17 of Cincinnati’s past 42 games. Prior to Green’s latest injury, both sides sought an extension. But nothing has emerged on that front in months; the Bengals surely want to see if Green can stay healthy when he returns.

Hours after a report indicated an A.J. Green Week 1 return was realistic, the timetable for the Bengals’ top player looks bleaker. Green is now expected to miss regular-season time, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter).

The cleanup on Green’s injured ankle revealed more damage, with Rapoport noting this discovery looks set to cost the ninth-year wide receiver a few games. Green has missed regular-season games in two of the past three years, including a career-most seven in 2018. Zac Taylor acknowledged (via The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr., on Twitter) “a couple games” might be the best-case scenario.

“There’s a good chance he’s going to miss a couple games,” Taylor said. “We’re hopeful he’s back at the beginning of the season. A little more extensive than we initially thought. … Hopefully he’ll be ready to go at the beginning half of the season.”

The only wide receiver in NFL history to begin his career with seven straight Pro Bowls, Green missed 13 games since the 2016 season. He tore ligaments in his ankle to start his ninth NFL camp. This comes in a contract year for the 31-year-old wideout. The Bengals have taken care of their No. 2 receiver, Tyler Boyd, via four-year extension.