It seems like a long shot that the Cincinnati Bengals will bring back free-agent wideout A.J. Green this offseason.
That would open the door for Green to play for a different team for the first time in his career, though the potential list of interested teams is hard to gauge.
Might a Super Bowl contender like the Kansas City Chiefs have interest?
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell made the case while running down the list of free-agent wideouts:
We’re now three-plus years removed from Green’s last healthy season as a starter (2017), and he hasn’t been that game-changing threat since 2018. He’ll have to take a massive pay cut from his $18 million franchise-tag figure, and having made more than $108 million as a pro, he might just move on.
I think Green can still play, and I wonder whether there’s a surprising fit. The Chiefs are going to move on from Sammy Watkins after his contract expires, and Mecole Hardman isn’t a like-for-like replacement. Green could be a relatively low-cost replacement for Watkins and chase a ring before he retires.
Projected: One year, $4 million from the Chiefs
It’s certainly a hard one to argue against. The Bengals wouldn’t seem to have much in the way of wiggle room to bring back Green on a notable deal, especially not with the bulk of the work going to Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins anyway.
If Green is to settle for a one-year prove-it deal after a bad showing on the franchise tag in 2020, it’s safe to presume he’d want to do so on a contender while playing with a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes
Like Andrew Whitworth and others in the past, Bengals fans would probably throw full support behind Green’s pursuit of a title if this were to happen.
