A.J. Green spent last season becoming a household name across the NFL. The five receivers likely to join him this season with the Bengals, however, wouldn't be recognized in a lineup outside the I-275 belt.
Only two of the five receivers behind Green even own one NFL reception. Andrew Hawkins caught 23 passes with Cincinnati last season and Brandon Tate 24 for the Patriots in 2010. That's it.
Armon Binns spent his first season on the Bengals practice squad and third-round pick Mohamed Sanu and fifth-round selection Marvin Jones are rookies.
How absurdly young and inexperienced is this group compared to the rest of the NFL? Looking at the players projected to make NFL rosters by our RapidReporters, every single NFL team has more receptions among their non-No. 1 wideouts.
Outside of the Raiders, every team owns a single player beyond their top target with more receptions than the entire Bengals non-Green wide receiver corps.
Here's the list of all 31 teams and the career reception count of their best non-No. 1 wideout. The differential is staggering.
Team: Player Name (career receptions)
Arizona: Early Doucet (111)
Atlanta: Harry Douglas (84)
Baltimore: Jacoby Jones (127)
Buffalo: David Nelson (92)
Carolina: Brandon LaFell (74)
Chicago: Devin Hester (194)
Cleveland: Mohamed Massaquoi (101)
Dallas: Dez Bryant (108)
Denver: Andre Caldwell (124)
Detroit: Nate Burleson (391)
Green Bay: Donald Driver (735)
Houston: Kevin Walter (315)
Indianapolis: Austin Collie (172)
Jacksonville: Mike Thomas (158)
Kansas City: Steve Breaston (248)
Miami: Devone Bess (260)
Minnesota: Jermone Simpson (71)
New England: Brandon Lloyd (311)
New Orleans: Lance Moore (244)
New York Giants: Victor Cruz (82)
New York Jets: Chaz Schilens (72)
Oakland Raiders: Jacoby Ford (44)
Philadelphia: Jason Avant (206)
Pittsburgh: Antonio Brown (85)
San Diego: Eddie Royal (206)
Seattle: Terrell Owens (1,078)
San Francisco: Mario Manningham (160)
St. Louis: Steve Smith (231)
Tampa Bay: Mike Williams (130)
Tennessee: Damian Williams (61)
Washington: Santana Moss (639)
What does this mean for the Bengals?
1. The average career receptions of the top individual not classified as the No. 1 wide receiver right now is 233. Remember, this is only talking about single players. All five Bengals wideouts only total 47 career receptions.
2. The average years experience of the six Bengals receivers on opening day will be 1.17.
This represents a dramatic shift in philosophy for Marvin Lewis and the Bengals. They employed Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens in 2010, who both owned more than 10,000 receiving yards. Zero receivers from the 2010 team that finished 4-12 remain.
“We needed to get better there,” Lewis said. “I stood here after the 2010 season and said that was one of the areas we needed to get better at. I'm pretty confident I think I said that. I think we've done it. We've done it in very short order.”
3. These days, the Bengals prefer to groom receivers themselves without any habits acquired elsewhere. Only Tate played a down for another NFL team.
Concerns regarding unparalleled inexperience at the position? Lewis isn't buying it.
“Whoever comes in here is going to be inexperienced because they haven't been in our offense with our coaches,” Lewis said. “It's new coaches. Its' a new thing. These guys you started from scratch with them so we have taught them from the ground up. We've taught them how to meet, how to learn, how to block, how to do everything they are supposed to do day in and day out.”
Follow Paul Dehner Jr. for Bengals updates on Twitter at @CBSSportsNFLCIN.
