When it comes to the NFL trade deadline, which is on the horizon, Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receiver A.J. Green is ready for whatever may go down, as his name continues to find it’s way in the trade rumors popping up daily.
“I’m prepared for anything,” Green said, during an interview with the team’s official website.
“A trade’s not going to change who I am. I’m still going to play. I’m still going to be A.J.”
Green being traded may be the likely outcome, as he is in the final year of his four-year, $60 million contract, and with the Bengals on the cusp of a rebuild after starting the season 0-5.
“I tell everybody I haven’t heard anything,” Green says. “I don’t fantasize about anything like that. I’m just trying to get healthy and go from there.”
However, what kind of value Green may have on the market is unknown. When healthy, he is one of the best wideouts in the league, but Green has yet to appear in a regular season game this season as he continues to recover from an ankle injury he suffered on the first day of training camp back in July.
Green, for his part, says he will be the same big-time wide receiver he has always been.
“I think I’ll be the same guy,” Green said. “There’s been nothing career-threatening. Nothing you’d call major.
“When I’m healthy, give me 16 games and my yardage will be crazy.”
Green’s value to the Bengals is unquestioned, and has been since they drafted him in the first round of the 2011 draft.
Green is second in franchise history in total receptions (602) and receiving yards (8,907) and third in career touchdowns (63), behind only Chad Johnson.
Despite all that he has done so far, Green wants more.
“I want the team records,” Green said. “I want more Pro Bowls. I want all that so when I leave there is going to be a standard.”
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Health is a big factor into how much success a player, such as A.J. Green, will have during his NFL career. Which is why their medical people must know the ins and outs of all types of potential ailments, from bronchitis to the more serious pilonidal disease and everything in between. Green can’t risk his career relying on a medical staff that doesn’t understand the most complex of maladies, such as pilonidal or mono, for example.