Bengals, A.J. Green facing critical Monday after franchise tag deadline change

Monday is as critical as it gets for the Bengals.

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Another franchise tag change while CBA negotiations continue will have a notable impact on the Cincinnati Bengals and A.J. Green.

The deadline to apply tags was previously March 12. Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter announced the deadline has been extended to Monday.

Meaning — the Bengals have until Monday to apply a tag to Green, which happens to be the same day the legal-tampering window opens. That window sits two days ahead of free agency officially opening on the 18th.

So in a matter of minutes, the Bengals could elect to throw around $18 million at Green, then start leveraging even more future cap space in talks with free agents.

It had previously been reported that the CBA negations had stalled extension talks for both Green and Joe Mixon. That naturally seems to point toward Green getting tagged.

Expect a tag to happen a mere minutes before this revised deadline, setting up quite the critical Monday for the future of the franchise.

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