A couple of months after watching Princeton wide receiver Andrei Iosivas emerge from the upstart Ivy League to man up with the Power Five in last year’s Senior Bowl, Bengals director of college scouting Mike Potts asked him to sit down in his Paycor Stadium office.

“Especially when you’re making that kind of jump, you want to look the guy in the eye,” Potts says. “You never for sure know the answer, but you want to have a good feeling in your gut one way or the other.

“Is this going to be too big for this guy?”

The gut retorted, ‘No.”

A week or so after that meeting, the Bengals drafted Iosivas in the sixth round and were rewarded with a solid rookie year on special teams and four touchdowns from scrimmage.

With Senior Bowl practices starting Tuesday in Mobile, Ala., and the game set for Saturday (1 p.m.- NFL Network), usually you would expect one, two, or maybe even three of those guys to become Bengals this April.

Since Zac Taylor became head coach in 2019, they’ve taken a dozen players from the Senior Bowl and they’re still with the club in a variety of roles.

Linebackers Germaine Pratt and Logan Wilson, along with cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, are starters. Defensive linemen Cam Sample and Zach Carter, as well as tight end Drew Sample, are regular rotational players. Linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither and safety Tycen Anderson are special teams staples. Running back Chris Evans and tackle D’Ante Smith are backups.

Iosivas and Illinois running back Chase Brown, a fifth-rounder, literally bolted out of last year’s game with 4.3-second, 40-yard dash speed that should vault them into regular roles next season as the scouting season churns.

But the Senior Bowl isn’t so senior anymore.