5 NFL superstars who should be traded by the deadline

1. A.J. Green, WR, Cincinnati Bengals

Through the first two games this season, with promising underlying numbers, Green and Joe Burrow were just not quite connecting (eight catches on 22 targets). In the last  If h e two games, rookie wide receiver Tee Higgins has outperformed Green as a changing of the guard seems to have started.

After missing all of last season with an ankle injury, and at 32 years old now, Green is playing this year on the franchise tag ($17.97 million salary). He has no long-term future in Cincinnati at this point, and as the weeks go on that nearly $18 million salary will get further prorated down. So a good team with a need at wide receiver (Green Bay Packers?) has to be watching Green closely.

Green is still playing a lot, topping a 70 percent snap share in both Week 3 and Week 4. It’s just that his target volume has faded, as Higgins has emerged (still 11 targets over that span though).

Health is a critical part of the conversation with Green, and he did leave Week 4 for a time. But by all indications are he’s just been knocking rust off through the first four weeks, as easily expected after only playing one game between October of 2018 and Week 1 this year. If he gets through a game or two more without incident, Green will have suitors and he’s probably as good as gone.