There was a story yesterday that Robert Woods is feeling great in his recovery from a torn ACL. "I actually feel like they're holding me back a bit," he says in a story at the team website. If so, he might turn out be a very underrated 2022 wideout.
In our Experts Draft earlier this week, Woods was selected in the 9th round, the 42nd wide receiver drafted. Receivers selected just before him include DJ Chark, Christian Kirk and Drake London. If Woods is healthy at the start of the season, he should be better than those players.
Tennessee surprisingly shipped off A.J. Brown, which means their top wideouts should both be newcomers: free-agent signing Woods, and first-rounder Treylon Burks. (Burks was taken a round later in the Experts Draft.) Woods is coming off injury, but he has a pretty nice body of work the last few years.
Over the past five seasons, Woods is one of just 23 wideouts to catch at least 300 passes. Only 10 of those players have averaged more yards per game than he has. Yes, he was working in a high-flying Sean McVay offense, and now he's going to Tennessee. But there were a lot of other receivers around him with the Rams to take targets away from him. Not nearly as much now.
| WIDE RECEIVERS, 2017-2021 (300-PLUS CATCHES) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Rec | Yds | Yds/G | TD |
| Michael Thomas | 55 | 418 | 4813 | 87.5 | 23 |
| Davante Adams | 71 | 506 | 6195 | 87.3 | 57 |
| Julio Jones | 66 | 382 | 5720 | 86.7 | 21 |
| DeAndre Hopkins | 72 | 472 | 6094 | 84.6 | 45 |
| Tyreek Hill | 75 | 418 | 6037 | 80.5 | 50 |
| Cooper Kupp | 71 | 433 | 5517 | 77.7 | 40 |
| Keenan Allen | 78 | 509 | 5918 | 75.9 | 32 |
| Mike Evans | 76 | 368 | 5723 | 75.3 | 48 |
| Stefon Diggs | 77 | 459 | 5760 | 74.8 | 41 |
| DJ Moore | 63 | 301 | 4313 | 68.5 | 14 |
| Robert Woods | 68 | 367 | 4626 | 68.0 | 23 |
| Adam Thielen | 70 | 375 | 4718 | 67.4 | 43 |
| Brandin Cooks | 77 | 358 | 5056 | 65.7 | 26 |
| Chris Godwin | 72 | 342 | 4643 | 64.5 | 29 |
| Amari Cooper | 76 | 362 | 4853 | 63.9 | 35 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | 63 | 323 | 3855 | 61.2 | 26 |
| Jarvis Landry | 75 | 400 | 4547 | 60.6 | 24 |
| Tyler Lockett | 80 | 357 | 4806 | 60.1 | 38 |
| Marvin Jones | 71 | 307 | 4198 | 59.1 | 36 |
| Tyler Boyd | 71 | 334 | 3968 | 55.9 | 23 |
| Robby Anderson | 79 | 313 | 4087 | 51.7 | 26 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 61 | 307 | 3103 | 50.9 | 17 |
| Cole Beasley | 77 | 332 | 3424 | 44.5 | 18 |
It will need to be confirmed, come July and August, that Woods is 100 percent healthy. But I think it's pretty safe to say he'll be this team's No. 1 wideout, and putting up good numbers each week. If he's available in the ninth round in drafts, I imagine he'll make it onto a few of my teams.
--Andy Richardson