Bengals announced Orlando Brown Jr  his leaving immediately after facing…

. was determined to make his mark.

So every Monday during Oklahoma’s intrasquad freshman scrimmage, Brown was going to fight someone. The person who was lined up against him was irrelevant. The important thing was he was going to start a scrap to get the coaches’ attention.

“I didn’t care who was over me, what the situation was, if it was a pass or a run — I was gonna start a fight somehow, some way,” Brown said. “And I was gonna be noticed through my physicality.”

That usually came at a price. Even when he was warned that he’d have to run as a punishment, he still started the fights. Because ultimately, Brown wanted to prove himself.

Nearly 10 years after his freshman season at Oklahoma, Brown is on that same mission. Even after four straight Pro Bowl appearances in his first five NFL seasons, the son of a long-time NFL tackle remains on a singular mission — to carve out his own legacy as one of the best.

Better than Anthony Muñoz, the Bengals legend and Hall of Famer. Better than Andrew Whitworth, a Super Bowl champion who played in the NFL for 16 seasons. Better than his dad.

“I want to lap them, you know?” Brown told ESPN. “And that’s to me, man, that’s what my motivation is — to go out there and be one of the greatest to do this.”

His next chance is Thursday night in a road game against the Baltimore Ravens (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video) with significant AFC North and playoff implications on the line.

The journey to prove that has taken him to the Bengals, his third team in six seasons. His two previous teams, the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs, decided to move on from Brown in favor of other players at his position or because the cost of his services was too steep.

That’s how he ended up in Cincinnati on a four-year, $64 million deal in the offseason, on an offensive line with four other starters who have had to prove themselves in the NFL as well.

He had a different upbringing than his father, Orlando Brown Sr., who grew up in a gritty part of Washington, D.C., and went from an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina State to a veteran NFL offensive lineman. And despite having a well-respected lineage, the younger Brown has had to show that he was worthy on his own merit.

Now in his sixth season, Brown is still looking to prove his status as one of the NFL’s best. That makes him a perfect fit on an offensive line, roster and organization that is yearning to show it is the best.

“That’s the culture of our organization,” Brown said. “It’s the culture of our team.

“It’s very motivating, man, especially in our room, to really go out there and be the who’s who of the NFL.”