Losing a player of Green’s caliber for any length of time is never easy for a team to overcome. Cincinnati has become somewhat used to life without its best player in recent years. Even so, the results have not been pretty. The team went 1-7 without Green last year. However, there are some reasons why the Bengals may fare better this time around.
Timing
There is no way to paint Green’s injury as anything but a bad thing. However, Cincinnati is not losing him in the middle of the regular season like in past years. Successfully adjusting on the fly midseason to losing a top flight player is next to impossible.