There are two camps of opinions with Bengals fans on the team's No.2 wide receiver position going into 2013. One of those believes that the current stable of youngsters that the team has is good enough to propel the offense into a top unit thanks to second-year players in Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones. The other side of the fence believes that the team needs to add another talented player to the group, if not only to provide some competition. That route might be best taken through the deep receiver class in this year's draft.
One such player is former USC wide receiver, Robert Woods. Sometimes tagged as a second or third round prospect, Woods completed his highly-productive Trojans career with a solid performance at the NFL Combine last month. Woods has been buried in this year's position group by bigger names like Cordarrelle Patterson, DeAndre Hopkins and others, but what may surprising to some is that Woods actually has more consistent production to stand on than some of the others.
USC held their Pro Day on Wednesday and while quarterback Matt Barkley was the main attraction, Woods put on a show of his own, where he likely improved on his stock. What hurts Woods is that he isn't huge (6'1", 190 pounds) and that he was overshadowed by fellow Trojans wide receiver Marquise Lee, especially in 2012. Still Woods has great hands, route-running skills and has some punt return ability as well. He finished 2012 with 76 catches for 846 yards and 11 touchdowns. That was a follow-up to the 2011 campaign where he racked up 111 catches for 1,292 and 15 touchdowns.
Even with his good Pro Day performance, Woods still seems to be a solid second round pick next month. In my first mock draft for Cincy Jungle, I had the team taking Woods with their second pick in the second round. I believe that Woods has the ability to be one of the best No.2 receivers in the NFL. The Bengals have preferred to pick wide receivers not named A.J. Green in the third round of late. If they want Woods and/or feel the need to bolster the receiver group, they'll likely need to spring on one pretty early.