Now we are hitting the Chad Generation of wide receivers.

Stanley Morgan, who already followed Chad Johnson a few years before Twitter and The Ocho, also knew he wanted to play in the NFL before he went to the game that day when he was ten years old and his youth football camp got on the field before Johnson's Bengals played his Saints. But after standing in front of Johnson during the national anthem under the dome in New Orleans, he really knew he wanted to make it.

Even before Johnson's 190 yards bested Drew Brees' 510 in that indoor air show on Nov. 19, 2006.

"That pushed me," Morgan said Saturday morning as rookie minicamp suddenly broke up in Johnson's old locker room. "It was just amazing to be in that stadium so big being so small. "I probably just said, 'Hey,' or something. I just looked at him for a long time. I was like, 'Wow, this is crazy.' I was star struck."

Because Chad is still Chad, he reached out to Morgan again when he slid through the draft two weeks ago and ended up signing with his old team as a free agent.

"He talks to me on Twitter all the time," Morgan said. "He told me it's not about getting drafted. It's about how you come in and perform. He told me it's about taking advantage of your opportunity."

And there is opportunity on this depth chart. After their two 1,000-yard receivers in A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd, the speed of John Ross and the return ability of reliable slot man Alex Erickson, they're looking for consistency and production. Since they didn't draft a wide receiver for the first time in 12 years, they must believe Nebraska's Morgan and Troy's Damion Willis are good enough to contend for those last few spots.

At 6-3, 204 pounds and seven catches of at least 40 yards with an average grab of 18 yards, Willis is believed to be the free agent with the highest rank on the Bengals' draft board. And after becoming Nebraska's first 1,000-yard receiver, the 6-0, 202-pound Morgan had been rated a fourth- or fifth-rounder, according to Ourlads Scouting Services.

Bengals wide receivers coach Bob Bicknell can't tell you why they were waiting for his call after the draft. But he'll gladly take them. Morgan is symbolic of the divide between draftnicks and draft rooms. His 4.53 seconds in the 40-yard dash, vertical jump of 38.5 inches and broad jump of 10 feet, five inches were in the top 10 of all receivers at NFL scouting combine, according to a published report that also notes he had the second-fastest time in cone drills and fourth fastest in the 20-yard shuttle.

So much for the gurus and big boards and daily mocks. After 28 wide receivers got drafted, Morgan was on the horn with Bicknell.