Cincinnati Bengals place WR A.J. Green on injured reserve

The Cincinnati Bengals are taking no risks with their star receiver, placing A.J. Green on injured reserve for the final week of the season…

The Cincinnati Bengals are taking no chances with star receiver A.J. Green heading into the offseason, placing him on injured reserve for their week 17 matchup…

This means the Bengals will not have either Green or tight end Tyler Eifert to finish out the season, which has been over for quite some time now. Green played in just 10 games this season, but nearly recorded another 1,000 yard season.

It’s the first season in Green’s career that he had fewer than 1,000 yards receiving, regardless of the number of games played (964). That includes his rookie season, when Green finished with 65 catches (one fewer than this season) and still posted over 1,000 yards.

Hamstring injuries can be tricky, so the Bengals didn’t want to risk anything. Clearly, by putting Green on injured reserve, they are eliminating any possibility that he could play on Sunday, removing the temptation to let Green talk them into letting him play.

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He was 36 yards away from joining Randy Moss as the only players in NFL history to record 1,000 yards in each of their first six seasons in the NFL.

Without Mohamed Sanu, Marvin Jones, and Tyler Eifert for much of the season, the Bengals really struggled to get Green the ball as much as they normally have in his NFL career. He posted a career low four touchdown catches this season, and you have to wonder how much of the talent around him played into that.

Green has reportedly not been overly happy with the Bengals’ decision to essentially shut him down this season, and apparently has missed some team meetings as a way to display his frustrations. He denied being unhappy with the team, but it’s certainly a situation to monitor heading into 2017 for one of the league’s best playmakers at wide receiver.