The Cincinnati Bengals would like to retain A.J. Green this offseason and that might have to come by way of the franchise tag. In a piece for CBS Sports highlighting players that could be tagged, Jason La Canfora believes that Green will likely be tagged by Cincinnati.
Prior to the 2019 season, Green was hoping to negotiate a long-term deal with the Bengals as he entered the final year of his contract. However, an ankle injury near the beginning of training camp caused some issues in discussions.
When Green originally injured his ankle, the Bengals expected the Pro Bowl receiver to miss a few weeks. On the contrary, the veteran wideout ended up being sidelined for the entire 2019 season.
Despite missing the entire season, Cincinnati is focused on re-signing Green before free agency kicks off. If the Bengals can't get a long-term deal in place, then Green could receive the tag for next season.
As La Canfora noted, the Bengals would like to keep Green in the offense with a new quarterback under center in 2020. Of course, it's likely that Joe Burrow is the manning the offense after Cincinnati presumably selects him with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Even though he's had injury woes in recent seasons, Green would undoubtedly draw interest from other teams on the open market. Nevertheless, the Bengals want to prevent him from speaking to other teams. With that in mind, Cincinnati will have until March 12 to decide whether or not to use the franchise tag on Green.
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