Love him and thankful to have him but not sure he ELITE

Too many dropped simple passes and does not fight for the ball amongst other petty things

Don't get me wrong - I think he is excellent but not ELITE 

(*Cue the homers..........)

Not Elite in my opinion but really freaking good. He can be elite if he stops dropping easy to moderately easy catches.

Yes Im saying Elite, would like to see him make those catches more and fight for the ball, but Ive seen a more aggresive AJ, you see him blocking yesterday, pushing people off his teammates? The little things like that I like. His route running, speed, ability to make that spectacular catch amongst others is elite.

(09-14-2015, 09:57 AM)Whacked Wrote: Love him and thankful to have him but not sure he ELITE

Too many dropped simple passes and does not fight for the ball amongst other petty things

Don't get me wrong - I think he is excellent but not ELITE 

(*Cue the homers..........)

He can and will be elite if he fixes the drops and fighting for the ball.

He is an elite route runner, but he has not shown elite hands dropping way too many balls.

I was encouraged yesterday at the goal line when he came back and fought for the ball (play he was held).

AJ will be fine and he does make a defense game plan for him. The Chargers took Calvin Johnson out of the game yesterday by double teams so Hue will have to figure out a way to get others involved this week.

Of course he's elite. He was 98 catches away (coming into the game) from setting the record for most in first 5 years in the nfl.

Dez Bryant dropped a simple catch on a third and short in the red zone last night in a super tight game (I believe Cowboys were down 3 or 6 at that point).

Is he not elite because he dropped a stupid pass?

Calvin Johnson was held to 2 catches for 30-something yards. Is he not elite? I've heard that "elite receivers don't get shut down like A.J. does sometimes!".

Aaron Rodgers throws inaccurate passes occasionally. J.J. Watt gets stood up sometimes. We had a quick talk about this in another thread, but some people just hold our players to impossible standards. A.J. isn't as good of a receiver as Rodgers is a QB, but the point stands.

I feel like some people either don't watch teams play outside of Cincinnati or else they just don't care what they see elsewhere and still continue to hold our guys to absurd standards. I can understand being frustrated when one of our best players makes a boneheaded play or just screws something up, but let's be realistic with our expectations for everybody on the team. It's not like A.J. is messing up at a high rate like others around the league and even guys on this team (looking at you, linebackers).

His drops are concerning because it seems over the last few seasons they have gotten worse. Also he appears to not run through his routes at times causing some ints as well as just missed balls. All of this comes down to concentration not skill, he just needs to get more focused more frequently. That being said it is all about where you stand next to your peers, against his current peers he is still probably top 5 in the League.

AJ is top 5 . Qualifies as elite for me.

I'd say almost there, but not quite, yet. Like others have said, between the occasional dropped pass, not fighting for the ball, or not running through his routes, he needs just a little bit more to be elite.

I know all of the "elite" have plays where they screw up or whatever, but sometimes it seems like AJ has one or two more than them, leaving him just short of elite. I want him to be elite and maybe I am a little too critical, but that's just me. I am glad we have him and that he is not somewhere else.

(09-14-2015, 10:13 AM)BernLock Wrote: Of course he's elite. He was 98 catches away (coming into the game) from setting the record for most in first 5 years in the nfl.

This. Even elite WRs could have a weakness and AJ's is probably dropping an easy pass here or there.

Yes he is elite. He is not as physical as some of his elite peers like dez and Calvin, but he's still sitting at the same lunch table with 'em, pullin all the fine bitches.

(09-14-2015, 10:37 AM)PApinhead Wrote: I'd say almost there, but not quite, yet.  Like others have said, between the occasional dropped pass, not fighting for the ball, or not running through his routes, he needs just a little bit more to be elite.  

I know all of the "elite" have plays where they screw up or whatever, but sometimes it seems like AJ has one or two more than them, leaving him just short of elite.  I want him to be elite and maybe I am a little too critical, but that's just me.  I am glad we have him and that he is not somewhere else.

We're very critical of him, we see every snap, every drop, every route seemingly not ran out, the not putting forth the best effort getting to the ball, and on and on. Others don't, they see the highlight reel.

If you watch the highlights and look at the stats - he's elite.

Us wanting more because we see it all - natural.

I like you think he needs that one more rung on the effort, focus, head in the game fighting ladder, to truly be elite !

(09-14-2015, 10:54 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: We're very critical of him, we see every snap, every drop, every route seemingly not ran out, the not putting forth the best effort getting to the ball, and on and on. Others don't, they see the highlight reel.

If you watch the highlights and look at the stats - he's elite.

Us wanting more because we see it all - natural.

I like you think he needs that one more rung on the effort, focus, head in the game fighting ladder, to truly be elite !

Do you see every snap, every drop, and every route of Julio, Dez, DT, Calvin, and AB?

His blocking also seems on point. He had a great one where he helped Sanu gain a chunk of yards at one point.

His speed, athleticism, and just general ability to get open I'd say is pretty darn elite. He might incomplete a pass on very few occasions, but I don't think it happens nearly enough to roast him about it.

(09-14-2015, 10:54 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: We're very critical of him, we see every snap, every drop, every route seemingly not ran out, the not putting forth the best effort getting to the ball, and on and on. Others don't, they see the highlight reel.

If you watch the highlights and look at the stats - he's elite.

Us wanting more because we see it all - natural.

I like you think he needs that one more rung on the effort, focus, head in the game fighting ladder, to truly be elite !

I was watching 8 games at once yesterday on the early games, then I watched 4 games for the later games and switched in and out of the Bengals games.

My grandson watched poor throw after poor throw from QB's like Luck, Cam, Bortles, Manning, Flacco and others. He normally just watched one game at a time. He made the comments he was shocked to watch all of these guys making so many poor throws.

The same thing with receiver drops.

It is not enough to just watch highlights of other teams, they are called highlights (high) for a reason and mostly show great or good plays for the offense or the defense.  Thus, most  fans opinions are skewed as they see 10% of other teams plays versus 100% of their own team.

(09-14-2015, 10:17 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: AJ is top 5 . Qualifies as elite for me.

Eh

I wouldn't put him at top five, but I can see an argument that he's #5

Antonio Brown
Dez Bryant
Calvin Johnson
Demaryius Thomas
Jordy Nelson
A.J. Green
Brandon Marshal
Julio Jones

(09-14-2015, 10:56 AM)Emphasis Wrote: His blocking also seems on point. He had a great one where he helped Sanu gain a chunk of yards at one point.

His speed, athleticism, and just general ability to get open I'd say is pretty darn elite. He might incomplete a pass on very few occasions, but I don't think it happens nearly enough to roast him about it.

He did have some nice blocks yesterday and that was great to see.

I don't think anyone is "roasting" him about the dropped passes.  We are just saying he needs to clean them up to be elite.

I've had issues with AJ's play for about 3 years now. First let me say I'm a huge fan of his and was hoping he'd be a Bengal from the first time I saw him play at Georgia, so I was all for the bengals drafting him. Thought he would be elite right away.

Then his rookie year, he looked the part. Every week, he was making big plays and dynamic contested catches where he would out jump the defender.

But if you look at all his highlights of those jump balls and contested catches, they were almost all from his rookie season and beginning of his second season. That part of his game has completely disappeared. So, what was his biggest strength doesn't even exist any more.

Since then, he's been passed up by other guys like Dez Bryant, Julio Jones, D Thomas, Antonio Brown, and a bunch of other guys who would have rated behind him at one time.

(09-14-2015, 11:11 AM)Brownshoe Wrote: Eh

I wouldn't put him at top five, but I can see an argument that he's #5

Antonio Brown
Dez Bryant
Calvin Johnson
Demaryius Thomas
Jordy Nelson
A.J. Green
Brandon Marshal
Julio Jones

IMO, you can put those guys in almost any order and be able to argue that it makes sense.

It's like when people would sit around and nitpick over which exact order Manning/Brady/Brees/Rodgers should have been in.

There are 7-10 "elite" receivers in the NFL right now. It's such a subjective term, and I think some people use it oddly. I don't think there's any magic number of how many elite players there can be at a given time. There could be a year where the NFL only has 1-2 elite receivers, and there could be a time when there happens to be 12. I know it may sound crazy to say that 1/4 of #1 WRs are elite, but there are probably 8 guys right now that make a very, very good case for that title and it's hard to argue how one of them should be considered elite but the other can't.

He's elite.

Eifert and Jones stand to benefit from it. I'd suggest Eifert just did.