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UPDATE August 25: Green will be worked back into practice starting Wednesday. He will likely be limited as he is eased back.
Meanwhile, in football news, #Bengals coach Zac Taylor says star WR A.J. Green will return to practice Tuesday after missing the past week or so with a hamstring injury.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 25, 2020
UPDATE August 21: Green will miss practice today and has now been out since August 17th after tweaking his hamstring. As a veteran, he can afford to miss some time but getting on the same page with Joe Burrow would be helpful in this shortened training camp.
A.J. Green is still out, which isn’t a surprise. Tee Higgins is participating in individual drills for the 3rd straight practice pic.twitter.com/c0bs2rqXyU
— James Rapien (@JamesRapien) August 21, 2020
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sigh.
The Cincinnati Bengals had their first padded practice of training camp on Tuesday, and wide receiver A.J. Green is not taking part. He dressed for practice but did not put on pads, according to team website writer Geoff Hobson.
Green took part in Monday’s practice, but had to leave early after he tweaked his hamstring, according to beat writer Tyler Dragon. Head coach Zac Taylor said the move had been precautionary and did not know at that point if Green would take part in Tuesday’s practice.
The Bengals placed the franchise tag on Green this offseason and he is playing on that after the two sides could not agree on a long-term deal. Green suffered torn ankle ligaments early in training camp a year ago and did not play the entire season. It had sounded like he was making progress back early in the season, but then some kind of setback eventually cost him the rest of the season.
The pandemic cut heavily into offseason workout programs and players entered training camp having had no in-person workouts since the end of last season. Soft tissue injuries are proving to be an issue, and Green’s is likely related to the long layoff.
Taylor said Green was back at 100 percent back in April, and even if it was coach-speak, it felt like Green was set to turn the corner after missing all of 2019 and seven games in 2018. Now, things are off to a slow start, and we’re left to wait and see how this shakes out over the coming weeks. We’re a shade over three weeks away from the start of the 2020 season, so we’ll wait for updates and hopefully Green gets back on track sooner than later.
In the meantime, this GIF sums things up pretty well.
— Anthony Scott (@deacon_ascott) August 18, 2020