Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Bengals WR A.J. Green is still being hampered by his hamstring injury and is not expected to play in either of the team’s final two regular season games.
Jay Glazer reported earlier this morning that the Bengals’ coaching staff wouldn’t clear Green to play in today’s game.
There had been some optimism this week that Green was going to return to the team for the first time since he suffered a Grade 2 hamstring tear back in Week 11.
“I’m not the type of guy to try to just shut it down, just to bail on my team because we’re not having the season we wanted to have,” Green said Thursday. “That’s like a cowardly move to me. If I’m healthy, I’m going to play. And I feel like I’m healthy.”
However, it makes sense for the Bengals to be extra cautious with Green, considering that the team has nothing to play for at this point and it wouldn’t make a lot of sense exposing their best player to further injury in the final two games of the season.
Green, 28, is a former first-round pick of the Bengals back in 2011. He’s currently in the second year of his five-year, $70.176 million contract that included $26.75 million guaranteed and is set to make a base salary of $3.8 million for the 2016 season.
In 2016, Green caught 66 passes for 964 yards receiving and four touchdowns for the Bengals. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 4 receiver out of 118 qualifying players.
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