A.J. Green took to Instagram on Monday afternoon to announce his retirement after a 11-year tenure in the NFL with the Bengals and Cardinals.
“I’ve never been a man of many words, so I’ll keep this short,” said Green on Instagram.
“Thank you. Thank you to all who have supported, encouraged, and inspired me throughout my career. Special thank you to the University of Georgia, Cincinnati Bengals, and Arizona Cardinals for the opportunity to pursue my dreams. I’ve stayed true to the game and it owes me nothing. Be blessed.. Love y’all! The next chapter begins.”
Who Is AJ Green?
Green was a former five-star wide receiver from Summerville, South Carolina. The 6-foot-4 wide receiver was drafted fourth overall in the 2011 NFL draft. He was taken two spots ahead of Alabama star Julio Jones in a star-studded class that featured himself, Jones, Randall Cobb, and Torrey Smith. After a dominating five seasons to start his career, Green left much to be desired on the back end of his career that was plagued with injuries.
Green spent nine seasons with Bengals and two seasons with the Cardinals. He’s considered one of the all-time great Bengal receivers, only behind Chad Johnson as of right now.
He is second in Bengals history in all-time receptions with 649, and 9,430 receiving yards, and 65 receiving touchdowns with Cincinnati. His total career numbers are 727 receptions, 10,514 receiving yards and 70 receiving touchdowns.
Green joins Jones, Mike Evans, Antonio Brown, and DeAndre Hopkins as the only receivers from 2011-2020 to eclipse over 10,000 receiving yards in their career.
Green is the only wide receiver in Bengals history to start his career with five straight seasons of 1,000 receiving yards. Unfortunately, Green was only able to play in five career playoff games. He never had a 100-yard receiving game in the playoffs and had one touchdown reception in his short playoff career with the Bengals.
AJ Green spent the first 10 years of his career with the Cincinatti Bengals, producing 649 receptions for 9,340 receiving yards and 65 touchdowns. (Getty images)
After nine seasons with the Bengals, he signed back-to-back one-year deals with the Cardinals in 2021 and 2022. In 2021, Green showed signs of his glory days with 54 receptions, 848 receiving yards, and three touchdowns. He played in 16 of the 17 games that season as well.
Last season, his production fell off once again with only 24 receptions, 236 receiving yards, and two touchdowns.
Green’s Injury History
In his first five NFL seasons, he only missed four games and played all 16 games in three different seasons. Then, the injuries start to come more frequently.
In 2016, Green missed six games due to a hamstring tear that sidelined him in week 11 for the remainder on the season. He bounced back to play all 16 games in 2017 before being sidelined again in 2018 with groin injury that caused him to miss seven games.
Then he missed the whole 2019 season with ankle injury that he suffered in training camp.
Green finished his season as one of four players selected to every Pro Bowl from 2011-17 and has the third-longest consecutive 1,000-yard season streak (five) in NFL history.
