Woods

Woods Embracing Leadership Role in 2018

Kristen Lago

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Woods-Embracing-Leadership-Role-in-2018/9b1975f6-b9c9-45c4-ad51-5e88b0fdb135

Wide receiver Robert Woods just turned 26 on April 10.

But because the Rams boast one of the youngest receiving rooms in the league — with an average age of just 23.9 — he enters the offseason as the oldest wide receiver of the group. In fact, the USC product holds almost two years of experience over every other wideout on the roster.

And while Woods may still be at an early point in his NFL career, the role of mentor is nothing new for the receiver. Though he joined the franchise just last season, Woods immediately provided a sense of leadership for the young group — setting the standard both on and off the field.

And as the club continues through its organized team activities this week, Woods is once again ready to embrace that role, helping guide the younger players lining up alongside him.

“The time on the field [it’s] just not kicking back and letting them run the drills,” Woods said this week. “When you see them make a mistake or anything they can improve on, be a voice, be in their ear, lead by example. We’ve been through it, we have experience, so just trying to share that insight with them when they’re not in.”

This year, Woods is heading into his sixth NFL season and is coming off of his best performance yet. In his first season with the Rams and under head coach Sean McVay, the wideout recorded a career high 781 receiving yards for five touchdowns.

And now that he has further experience with the offense and overall system, Woods anticipates an even better 2018. With what he has seen thus far in OTAs, the wideout said he’s seen significant growth at a faster rate.

“So far, so good. Big improvements from last year. Just our timing with Jared [Goff] as an offense is more advanced than we were at this point,” he said. “But just moving forward and still trying to grasp more of the concepts. The more we know, the better we are.”

The offense will have five more OTAs and three days of minicamp to hammer out the details before heading into training camp in July. As Woods put it, the next few weeks will be very important for not only self-improvement, but also to help integrate some of the unit’s new additions — like wide receiver Brandin Cooks.

“He’s going to fit in very nice. You’ve seen him the first couple of days tearing things up, you see his speed already,” Woods said. “I think he’s a big impact for this offense, for this team and we got a lot. … I think there’s 11 guys on our offense returning, he’s a new addition, but we’re picking right up and still keeping things going pretty fa