A.J. Green still isn’t a fan of the franchise tag.

Which doesn’t mean Green won’t take the money from the Cincinnati Bengals and play. But he thinks it sends a certain message too.

Green touched on this point during the regular season and at season’s end and hasn’t much changed his tune since then.

But since then, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin and even head coach Zac Taylor have been at the Senior Bowl and preached they want Green on the team and that all options remain on the table.

Including a tag.

Green is well aware and sticking to his guns, as captured by Elise Jesse of WLWT:

AJ Green told me he thinks he still has many NFL years left in him, “I think there’s a lot of great years ahead of me. I’m looking forward to wherever that happens, wherever the contract happens, franchise tag, I don’t care. I just want to get back to playing football”. — Elise Jesse (@Elise_JesseWLWT) January 23, 2020

He noted the tag “isn’t the best thing” but he’d take it:

AJ Green told me a franchise tag would speak volumes to him. "A franchise tag is not the best thing". pic.twitter.com/IwSKBPXpbc — Elise Jesse (@Elise_JesseWLWT) January 23, 2020

Again: Green wants to stick with the Bengals because that’s simply how he’s built, but receiving a tag would mean the team only wants him for a single year.

From a Bengals perspective, hitting Green with a long-term extension seems risky due to his health issues over the past few seasons.

The longer this impasse continues, the more it seems like the tag might be a predictable endpoint as the Bengals look to stop Green from hitting the open market.