When you talk about the Cincinnati Bengals offense, there’s one name that gets mentioned in the first breath – you know the guy, he wears #18, he’s been to the Pro Bowl every season he’s been in the league, had three touchdowns in the first 17 minutes of the Ravens game last week, checks all the boxes of everything you’re looking for in a wide receiver: body control, hands, route running, speed, agility, physicality – all these traits are what make it easy for the Panthers secondary to call AJ one of the best receivers in the league.
“Obviously, he’s one of the best receivers in the league,” said Captain Munnerlyn.
Told you.
But facing one of the top receivers in the league doesn’t mean the Panthers aren’t ready to handle him.
“I’m kind of familiar with him a little bit and I’m up for the challenge,” said Captain Munnerlyn, who practiced against Green in 2016 joint practices when the nickel corner was in Minnesota.”I know a lot of people are like, ‘Oh man, Captain, it’s going to be rough.’ But I’m up for the challenge – I think that’s when I play my best.”
Green does have a seven-inch height advantage over Munnerlyn, so when he moves into the slot, which he will almost certainly do on Sunday – that’s where all four of his 2018 scores have come from – it will be up to the veteran corner to stay between Green and Dalton, especially if they’re going deep, which they’ve done a lot throughout their career. The Dalton-Green combo has completed passes of longer than 50 yards more times than anyone in the league since they both entered in 2011.
Most of the time, though, Green will be seeing a lot of James Bradberry, who has been following around #1 wideouts for much of his career – Bradberry says that matchups against top level talent are how players earn their next contract, and Bradberry wants to earn another one here in Carolina when his expires after next season; the third-year corner will see most of Green, but there will be plays where he’s matched up with Donte Jackson – if he’s able to play Sunday – Captain Munnerlyn or Corn Elder.
“We’ve got a bunch of young guys that don’t know any better – that’s the first part,” said Ron Rivera. “They’re all competitive as heck; [Bradberry] has done a tremendous job, – since his rookie year, we’ve put him into tight positions and he doesn’t back down one iota. He didn’t back down last week against one of the premier receivers in this league and he’s got another one this week that he’ll have opportunities to line up against.”
Bradberry has done well against #1 wide receivers in the past, as recently as last week when he was able to limit Julio Jones to five catches for 64 yards – it’s one of the reasons Corn Elder says he can cover any receiver in the league. But once you’ve taken away the #1 wide receiver, a defense can’t get stuck on him, which Ron Rivera said may have happened a little bit last week in Atlanta; with Jones limited, the rest of the pass catchers combined for 208 yards and two scores.
That can’t happen this week against the Bengals, because even if you shut down Green, the Bengals have 2017 top-ten draft selection John Ross, he of the 4.22 forty-yard dash time, and Tyler Boyd, who had his career high in both receptions (6) and yardage (91) last week against Baltimore in addition to a score. Boyd spent most of his time in the slot last season, but with Green moving inside occasionally, Boyd took advantage of his time on the outside and was a big target on third down for Andy Dalton.
“It’s a good group of receivers,” said Corn Elder, who may draw the start with Donte Jackson nursing a sore groin. “The main focus is just stopping everyone, you can’t focus on just stopping one guy. Whoever I’m matched up against, I’m matched up against – the coaches do a good job of putting us in the right position to make plays, so we can just go out there and play ball.”
Don’t forget about tight end target Tyler Eifert, who missed most of the last two seasons with back and ankle injuries, but is fully healthy – in 2015, his last healthy season, Eifert set the Bengals franchise record for touchdowns by a tight end with 13. John Ross said in the offseason that when Eifert draws attention, it opens up the field for the speedy wide receiver and vice versa – add the consideration that Green pulls into his orbit and it can be a deadly combination – at least it has in the first two games of the Bill Lazor regime.
Wherever Green lines up, don’t plan on seeing the Panthers ’tilt’ the defense towards the man who has the most receiving touchdowns in the NFL through two weeks, they’re going to trust their scheme and their players, but Green is the type of player that every defender needs to know where he is when he comes out of the huddle.
“I don’t know if tilt the defense is necessarily what we would do, you’ve just got to know where he’s at [and] where he lines up,” said Luke Kuechly. “Is he at one, two or three? Is he lined up in a unique area? Is he on the ball or off the ball?”
“You’ve just got to figure out where he is and hopefully you can find out something during the week [on film] that gives you a clue what’s going on.”
