Bengals WR AJ Green Goes “Under the Microscope” with CBS
By Jack Lane
In a through breakdown of AJ Green’s fantasy potential, CBS analyzes the Bengals offense as a whole and how Green could influence its improvement.
CBS Sports’ Fantasy Football Today Podcast has been doing a series breaking down top draft picks in depth. After exhausting most first round picks, they turned their attention to Bengals wide receiver AJ Green today. The crew of Adam Aizer, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings discussed Green’s upside and downside.
In general, they seemed bullish on Green for the 2018 fantasy season. Green’s most enticing quality, the analysts concurred, is his remarkable consistency. Over the last five years, Green has averaged over 1,200 yards and 8 touchdowns a season. In those five seasons, he has only missed significant time (2016), so he’s not an injury risk, either. Those stats are phenomenal in fantasy in any scoring format. Also, that’s Green in an average year. When he has his best years, Green can be a top five fantasy wide receiver.
The CBS crew seemed to believe Green could have an above average year with the potential improvement of the offense. Most notably, the offensive lien should definitely become more reliable. If Dalton has more time in the pocket, he can give Green more accurate targets, especially on deep balls. Also, as Richard brought up, there should be more complementary options to Green this year. Last season, Green fought double teams all year as none of Eifert, Ross, or Boyd stepped up. This year, there should definitely be enough improvement across the offense as a whole to give Green serious potential upside.
However, the podcast segment wasn’t all praise. Aizer especially was a little more hesitant to buy into Green completely. The biggest holdup for the analysts was Green’s lack of elite finishes in the last five years. He has only been a top five receiver once in the last five years, and that was a fifth place finish. If he can’t even sneak into the top five of receivers, he won’t produce much surplus draft value. Also, the offense may not necessarily get better, they argued. If the Bengals stagnates and play like they did last year, Green may have a similarly mediocre year.
Overall, they seemed to agree that AJ Green was a very safe WR1 for the 2018 season. He may not have the freaky upside of Julio Jones or Davante Adams, but if he plays, Green will be a WR1. Even if he doesn’t finish in the top five, he will still be a reliable weekly guy. Currently going as the 18th player off the board, behind Jones, Michael Thomas, and Keenan Allen, Green is not a bad value to start your draft. Under the microscope, Green held up to the scrutiny.