Zac Taylor on A.J. Green’s return: ‘One of the best receivers in the NFL’

The 2019 season was a rough year for the Bengals. It wasn’t exactly how Zac Taylor wanted to start off his Cincinnati career.

One big reason for the struggles last season was the absence of the team’s star wide receiver A.J. Green, who missed the entire 2019 with an ankle injury as well as recovering from some nagging injuries.

Recently, Green returned to the field again, and with under one week to get ready for Week 1, Taylor couldn’t be happier.

“[Having Green back] is huge. He’s one of the best receivers in the NFL,” Taylor told CBS Sports. “To see him live and in person for really the first time this training camp is significant for our team. It gives us an enormous weapon out there on the outside that people are really going to be concerned about. He and Joe [Burrow] have formed a nice connection and good chemistry, so we are excited to work him back into the fold and have him for Week 1.”

There is no question that a healthy Green makes this offense better. He would be a great safety blanket for rookie quarterback Joe Burrow, pulls coverage to help free up Tyler Boyd and the rest of the wide receivers and safeties can’t come up into the box as often to help contain Joe Mixon.

The problem in the past few seasons has been having a healthy Green. If that changes and we see Green play some substantial time, we could see a pretty fun offense start to form in Cincinnati. The question will then become who stays from the Bengals receiving corps.

Taylor and the rest of Cincinnati would happily take a clean bill of health for Green in 2020. He is still a player capable of making a huge difference for a team. Especially one as young as the Bengals.