Woods and Joe Mixon need no summit. They met last season during Mixon's rookie year when he arrived in the second round just like Woods, a big and athletic back with the sky the limit. "Good kid," Woods says. "What I like about him is he runs hard … He's a punishing runner. I like that."

But Mixon isn't as big as he was. He shows up with a glove Wednesday but not the 230 pounds from last season.

Try 218. A svelte 218. It looks like he left half of his appendages in the Bay.

"I was working in that heat," says Mixon, who got it both barrels in his hometown of Oakland and his adopted home of Norman, Okla. "I feel like that's where I play my best. I was trying to get low last year but I wasn't able to make it. I feel real good. My body feels real good. I feel like I'm in really good shape."

Mixon's dad, John, a former City College safety who hurt his knee but had a tryout with the 49ers, is still in good enough shape to work out with his son daily. "He looks just like me," his kid says. They're both younger than Woods, a man that lived what the younger Mixon seeks. No Bengal has rushed in the range of 1,300-1,400 yards since Rudi Johnson averaged 1,407 yards from 2004-06.

Woods says Mixon can.

"He can definitely be a bell cow. A 1,000-yard back. A 1,300-1,400 yard back if he has the right offensive line in front of him," Woods says. "He can average 80, 90 yards a game and be right there."

Woods knows the map. He simply followed one of the finest offensive lines ever, a group anchored by Pro Bowlers at left tackle (Anthony Munoz) and right guard (Max Montoya) and coached by a savant in Jim McNally. Woods fumed while watching Mixon struggle as a rookie behind a group in transition during what turned out to be the worst rushing season in franchise history.

With Frank Pollack replacing long-time offensive line coach Paul Alexander over the winter, Woods has been taking notes and he's not looking for them to go back to the future. He just wants them to return to 2014 and 2015, a stretch under offensive coordinator Hue Jackson that includes their last 1,000-yard rushing season in the person of rookie Jeremy Hill. It's been three straight seasons without a 1,000 bill, their longest drought since the four seasons before Corey Dillon arrived in 1997.

"People fail to realize that without an offensive line … I don't care how good of a running back he is. Without an offensive line, it's hard," Woods says. "When we had our (guy) Hue Jackson here, Hill ran the ball real well because the offensive line fired out. After Hue left, Alexander went back to that zone blocking crap and we got our butts kicked. Hopefully this new O-line coach can light a fire under those guys and open some holes out there. Jim McNally was a run-first coach. He loved to run the ball. We had our guys, Anthony Munoz, Max and Joe (Walter), guys firing out at people and not catching them."

At 6-2, 231 pounds when he did the first Shuffle, Woods is a different breed of Bengal than the 6-1 and now 218-pound Mixon. When former Cincinnati Christian College head coach David Fulcher, a natural manager, filled out his line-up card Wednesday night, James Brooks is just as natural as his lead-off hitter. He hits Woods second and Mixon third, a nice look at the diversity that has blessed Bengals backfields down through the years. Brooks went to four Pro Bowls as a 21st century matchup nightmare.

Woods catches a glimpse of Brooks in Mixon.

"He has the ability to do what James Brooks did. Run the ball well and be in there on passing downs," Woods says. "He doesn't mind putting his head down and running over somebody or running a (pass) route as well."

Like he says, everybody knows him. Especially a guy like Mixon. Even though he was born five years after Woods' last carry.