A.J. Green won’t practice this week

The mysterious issue of A.J. Green’s recovery from ankle surgery will continue for at least one more week.

On Monday, head coach Zac Taylor announced Green will not practice this week and is out vs. the Ravens. While it was previously reported that Green would remain sidelined in Week 6, it’s still very concerning to hear he still won’t practice after two months since his original injury on Day 1 of training camp.

Taylor did make sure to note Green did not have a setback in his recovery. If that’s true, then how is the Pro Bowl receiver still unable to practice?

By not practicing this week, that’s a good indicator he won’t even play in Week 7 vs. the Jaguars, and it’s getting harder to see him playing in Week 8 when Cincinnati travels to London to face the Ravens.

Even if Green did play vs. the Rams before the bye in Week 9, that means he’ll have only played in one game over the first eight weeks. The issue there is the Bengals had the option to put Green on injured reserve and activate him after eight games, but they passed on it.

That in turn has forced the Bengals to use a roster spot on a player who may very well miss the first eight games anyhow, while positions like linebacker and offensive tackle have desperately needed more help.

Making matters worse is John Ross is on injured reserve with a shoulder injury while Alex Erickson has a concussion, so even the receiver position is getting depleted as Green occupies a roster spot that’s being used for nothing.

Maybe the Bengals just made a bad miscalculation at to when they thought Green would be fully recovered from his injury. It certainly wouldn’t be the first major misstep this medical staff has made.