Bengals WR Green progressing from toe injury

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green has an easily visible target when it comes to being fully recovered from a season-ending toe injury on his right foot. "Whenever the first game is, I'll be 100 percent," Green told the Cincinnati Enquirer on Tuesday. "The first regular season game."

Green discussed his injury at a public appearance and said he is progressing well from December's season-ending surgery to repair torn ligaments in his big toe. The 30-year-old Green has been wearing a walking boot and he said he will be out of it in about a week or so.

"Next step is I put on a shoe and I start bending it back more and moving it more," Green said. "The biggest thing is it's the offseason and we have time. We don't have to rush anything. The biggest thing is getting range of motion back." At this point, Green isn't making any forecasts about whether or not he will participate in OTAs or minicamp.

The toe injury limited Green to nine games in 2018 and he finished the campaign with career lows of 46 catches and 694 yards. He missed seven of the final eight contests. Green also failed to make the Pro Bowl for the first time in his eight-year career.

Another rough element to a trying year for Green was seeing the ouster of Marvin Lewis, the only coach he has had during his NFL career. "It was tough," Green said. "He brought so much good to this city and to this team. He's a great coach. I wish him the best. He put us in a great position. We've got a lot of talent, we've drafted well. It's next man up. It's a sad story, but I guess it was time."

The Bengals are expected to hire Los Angeles Rams quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor as head coach after the Super Bowl. "It will definitely be a big change, more change than I'm used to," Green said. "Coach Lewis has been here my first eight years. It's all I know. It's going to be tough not having him. But it's that spark we needed I guess, so we'll see how it goes."

--Field Level Media