Joe Burrow emphasizes getting A.J. Green more involved

It’s no secret that A.J. Green isn’t living up to his $18 million deal.

While Green started the season on a promising note, his play has declined each game until his one target, zero reception Week 5 outing in Baltimore.

Try as he might, Joe Burrow just can’t seem to connect with Green, especially on deep passes.

“A.J. is a great player and I’m going to continue to try to get him the ball and we need to get him going,” Burrow said, according to the Bengals’ website. “He’s a big part of this offense and we just have to get it going. We’re going to need some better chemistry. We do.

“We’re putting in a lot of work together. We’re here you know 14, 15 hours a day so we’re putting the work in to get things right.”

The two had limited practice together during the offseason, so they’re putting the work in now.

“It’s a work in progress and we are going to get it right,” Burrow said.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in the chemistry of that group. We feel like that’s really coming along. It’s one of those things you don’t want to force,” Taylor said. “It comes naturally. We’ve got a lot of good dudes in both of those rooms (offense and defense) that just want to be productive and help our team win. That’s the bottom line. That’s where I feel really good about this team right now is it’s OK for guys to get frustrated throughout the team. When you don’t win that’s the expectation. We’re at a place with this team where we can move past that stuff and still be a strong unit and be able to put that one quickly behind us and move forward to what’s important the next week. I think that’s the growth we’ve seen with this team over the two-year process.”

Green admitted to letting frustration take over on Sunday against the Ravens. Between poor play and behavior on the sidelines, Green acknowledged that things aren’t going the way he wants them to.

“Throughout the week we’ll come up to each other and talk about certain routes on certain plays against certain coverages,” Burrow said. “How each of us expects it to be run and expects the ball to be. Just little informal conversations throughout the week that really make or break the offense.”

Taylor confirms that a lot of conversations between Burrow and Green go on outside of practice.

“We certainly do more things now as groups post practice to make sure all those voices are being heard,” Taylor said. “What’s most important is not always the coaches getting up there installing and correcting and saying all the things we have to do, it’s the players communicating with one another in a meeting setting. We create those opportunities for those guys to make sure they’re all on the same page.”