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Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green has played his entire NFL career in the Queen City, but the pending unrestricted free agent doesn’t seem enamored with a franchise tag being used to keep him there.

The Cincinnati Enquirer previously reported that the Bengals plan to use the franchise tag on Green if they can’t come to terms on a long-term contract resolution before the March 10 deadline. That tag will cost $18 million.

“The franchise tag is not the best thing,” Green told Elise Jesse of WLWT. “But like I said, I’m not turning down $18 million.

“It just happens. When you run a business, you have to make difficult decisions. But I feel like when you put that on me, then that’s what you’re showing me, you only want me for one year. And I always play with a chip on my shoulder.”



Green, who will turn 32 in July, sat out the 2019 season after sustaining an ankle injury last summer.

“We are going to talk to him. All options are on the table,” Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said Wednesday, per the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I don’t have anything to announce. But he’s a guy that we plan on having next year. Hopefully we will be able to get something done.”

A seven-time Pro Bowl selection, Green has recorded 602 receptions for 8,907 yards and 63 touchdowns in 111 games since the Bengals selected him fourth overall in the 2011 NFL Draft.

— Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)