A.J. Green needs better production for Hall of Fame
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green is widely known as one of the best in the NFL. Is he good enough to make the Hall of Fame right now?
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green is undoubtfully one of the best in the league at his position. Consistently being a top target for veteran quarterback Andy Dalton, Green has been able to put up good numbers every season. Even when the offense struggles like it did in 2017, Green is able to take on the extra coverage by defenses and still put up stats.
As it stands right now, I don’t think that Green would be a Hall of Fame receiver if he were to retire this season. Even though he has put up impressive numbers like 1,000 yards receiving every year aside from 2016 when he only played in ten games, Green still has something to prove if he wants to make it into Canton.
When people talk about the top receivers in the league, names like Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, and Odell Beckham always tend to pop up alongside Green. When you compare what Green has done during his seven years in Cincinnati with those names, he has yet to put up numbers like Jones and Brown. Most might argue that both of those receivers are in better situations than Green, but there’s no doubt that they are putting up much bigger numbers.
Julio Jones has put up 1,400 yards or more the last four seasons including a 2015 season where he put up 1,871 yards. Combining all four seasons, Jones has taken the ball for 6,317 yards and accompanied those yards with 23 touchdowns during that span. Antonio Brown during that span has gone 6,349 yards adding 43 touchdowns to his stat sheet. Mind-blowing stats like these are what keep Green behind these two receivers when talking about the best receivers in the league.
In Green’s seven seasons, he has only surpassed 1,400 yards once while Brown has done it four times and Jones four as well. Brown has seen his fair share of double coverages and defenses gravitating to his side of the field as well given the dropoff from him and other Pittsburgh Steelers receivers and still put up ridiculous stat lines and over 100 catches consistently the last five seasons. Jones has also succeeded with limited talent around him and an offense that dropped off after losing offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan last season and still put up over 1,500 yards.
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There’s no argument that each of these two receivers has better quarterbacks than Green. To argue that Dalton is in the mix with both Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan is just plain ridiculous in my opinion. While I believe that Green is a top receiver in this league, at this given point, I do not believe he would be put into the Hall of Fame down the road. He has to put up numbers like Brown and Jones if he wants to make a run for Canton. Green can make the list of Top 50 NFL Players by Pro Football Focus, but he has work to do if he wants his name in the forever Hall of Fame.