Following the Cincinnati Bengals' 34-12 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Seahawks fifth-round cornerback Richard Sherman came away less-than-impressed with Bengals first-round wide receiver A.J. Green.
"He’s (Green's) probably one of the most overrated receivers out there," Sherman said via Curtis Crabtree of 950-KJR. "He wasn’t anything special. (Andy) Dalton is a good quarterback. He makes good decisions. But A.J. Green is just a lot of noise-talking and bad routes."
Green caught four passes for 63 yards and a 43-yard touchdown against the Seahawks, but was targeted a team-high ten times on Sunday. Two of those targets resulted in interceptions, including one by Sherman, the first of his NFL career, and another by safety Kam Chancellor on a ball that was initially tipped by Sherman.
Sherman and Green were selected 150 picks apart in the 2011 NFL Draft -- and Green's contractual guarantee ($19.688 million) dwarfs Sherman's $182,424 signing bonus -- so it's possible that they first made acquaintances when Sherman came up to make a tackle on Green after a 5-yard reception on a 3rd-and-7 play from the Seahawks' 21-yard line. Green and Sherman began jawing at one another, a trend that would continue throughout what was a surprisingly chippy game between two clubs that play one another once every four seasons.
Green responded to Sherman's comments on Wednesday, admitting that his route-running was a bit sloppy against the Seahawks, Kevin Goheen of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
"I think I did some things that I don’t usually do; some slack route running," said Green. "I feel coming off that bye week I didn’t have the proper release I needed to get off with their long corners. But they did a great job. I feel like they played their technique well. We didn’t adjust as well. I didn’t have the game that I wanted but it will be like that. When you’re trying to make that step you’re going to go through bumps and being a rookie I’m going to have to learn some more releases. I’ll just keep working at it."
For more on Green, including his belief that the football field is like Las Vegas, click here.
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