With two weeks and a day until the Bengals open training camp, there’s chatter on social media about Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green as Pro Football Focus asks if he might land in the Hall of Fame.
By their grading system, Green's past two seasons have been his best, and when looking at his numbers, that'd be hard to argue although he was limited by a hamstring injury to 10 games in 2016. You've got to pay close attention, though, to the metrics.
The seventh-year pro out of the University of Georgia in 2015 caught 86 passes for 1,297 yards, 15.1 per reception, and scored 10 touchdowns.
He’s bettered all of those numbers earlier in his career, and certainly in the past out-did the raw numbers that he put up in 2016, when he caught 66 passes for 964 yards, and 14.6 per with four scores.
So how might the past two seasons be considered better than, say, 2012 (97 catches, 1,350 yards, 11 touchdowns) and 2013 (98 catches, 1,426 yards, 11 touchdowns)?
It’s all about efficiency.
Green in the past two seasons has put up his best catch rates, hauling in 65.2 percent of his targets in 2015 and 66 percent last season. Prior to ‘15, his best catch rate was in ‘12, when he turned in 59.1 percent.
Working out near his home outside of Atlanta, Green recently caught up with Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford -- his college battery mate -- and Panthers tight end Greg Olsen. They were, apparently, at a pink house owned by Atlanta rapper/hip-hop artist 2 Chainz.
Surely, there can be no debate that the pink house is Hall of Fame material. For more information on that, read this, or check in @2Chainz.
