Player comparisons are always one of the biggest parts of the pre-draft process and some current Cincinnati Bengals players usually come up in the conversation each year.
While most aren’t throwing out names like Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase by any means, some bigger Bengals names have popped up.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar made some pro player comparisons for his top 50 prospects of the 2023 NFL draft and three prospects wound up compared to current Bengals.
Here’s a look at the comparisons, which include Orlando Brown Jr., Tee Higgins and Mike Hilton, plus Farrar’s take on the products before they hear their name called this week.
38. Quentin Johnston, WR, TCU: Tee Higgins
It’s certainly not a bad thing to wind up compared to Higgins, the first pick of the second round in 2020 and a guy the Bengals viewed as a first-round player.
Johnston feels like he’ll fall into a similar range, as he’s not a major name, yet has plenty that will help him excel in the pros.
Farrar’s analysis:
Selected with the first pick in the second round of the 2020 draft (the same draft that gave the Bengals Joe Burrow with the first overall pick), Higgins came into the league as a big (6-foot-4, 219 pound) receiver with all the traits, but gaps in consistency. Higgins has been incredibly productive in the NFL, especially over the last two seasons, and like Higgins, Johnston could be the same in any offense where he’s not the alpha dog, with the point of defensive focus on him every week. He could be part of a hellacious one-two punch, as Higgins is with Ja’Marr Chase, pretty quickly.
46. Clark Phillips III, CB, Utah: Mike Hilton
Hilton is one of the smaller corners in the NFL, yet one of the most productive. He’s been a Swiss army knife for Lou Anarumo, doing it all from press coverage to blitzing and more.
Farrar likes Phillips as that comparison:
An undrafted free agent out of Mississippi, Hilton got on with the Steelers, and has been an impact cornerback for Pittsburgh and the Bengals throughout his six-year career. He’s not the most imposing guy at 5-foot-9 and 184 pounds, but Hilton proves that you can succeed in the NFL without that stature if you’re a student of the game, and that transfers to the field in positive ways. Phillips profiles very much the same way.
49. Dawand Jones, OT, Ohio State: Orlando Brown, Jr.
Brown is one of the better tackles in the NFL and he’s done it at a size that wouldn’t normally excel on the left side. He was great at right tackle, but the Bengals have him in town to take up that role on Burrow’s left side.
The comparison from Farrar:
The 6-foot-8, 363-pound Brown was selected by the Ravens in the third round of the 2018 draft out of Oklahoma. Brown was able to succeed in Baltimore’s heavy gap scheme at right tackle, and he subbed in on the left side for Ronnie Stanley when Stanley was hurt. That led to his trade to the Chiefs, in which Brown became a starting left tackle at a size you wouldn’t normally expect. Brown, who signed a major deal this offseason to be the Bengals’ left tackle, will lose edge-rushers around the arc, but like Jones, he’s great in quick-game pass pro, and there’s enough size and technique to make things work.
