A few weeks back I said the San Francisco 49ers were in a fortunate position with the Cincinnati Bengals in their Week 2 matchup. Well, to be blunt, I said the 49ers were winning that game because the Bengals have nothing. If you can go from nothing to, like, negative nothing, the Bengals just did it because Adam Schefter broke the news that wide receiver A.J. Green has torn ligaments in his left ankle. Green will be out six to eight weeks.
In a best-case scenario, Green is back in action by Week 2 when the 49ers travel to face the Bengals. As we all know, sometimes those recoveries don’t go as expected, and Green very well could be sidelined as he recovers.
That leaves the Bengals with Joe Mixon at running back, a bunch of tight ends and not much else. The Bengals wide receiver group that was one of the best in 2015 has since been dismantled, and there isn’t much behind A.J. Green you could call a threat. The Bengals had the 24th-most receiving yards in 2018 with 3,290 yards. Nearly 600 of which came from Green.
If you compare the rosters and where they are in their rebuilds, the Bengals had a tough matchup against the 49ers going into this with Green. Without Green, this has a chance to get real ugly quick.
But this is the 49ers.