The Cincinnati Bengals have made a bigger effort in recent years to honor past greats.
The creation of the Ring of Honor and other modern strategies helped raise the profile of the organization and arguably played a role in producing a second Hall of Famer from the team, Ken Riley after Anthony Munoz, with others sure to follow.
Looking at a list of the greatest players to wear any uniform number in franchise history makes it interesting as some of the team’s current players are mixed in with the best players from other eras.
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Here, we look at the best players to wear each number in Bengals history, based on details like the honor, importance to the franchise, and Pro Football Reference’s AV metric.
1. WR Ja’Marr Chase
2nd Place: K Evan McPherson
No. 3: K Jim Breach
No. 4: K Randy Block
5th: WR Tee Higgins
6. QB Jeff Driskel
7th place: QB Boomer Esiason
No.8: QB Jeff Blake
No.9: QB Joe Burrow
No. 10: P Kevin Huber
No. 11: P. Lee Johnson
No.12: WR Mohamed Sanu
13th place: DB Ken Riley
14th: QB Ken Anderson (AV 160, Andy Dalton AV 100)
15th: WR Chris Henry
No. 16: K. Horst Muhlmann
No. 17: K Shayne Graham
No. 18: WR AJ Green
No. 19: RB Essex Johnson
20th place: DB Lemar Parish
21st place: RB James Brooks
22nd place: DB Eric Thomas
23rd place: DB Bernard Jackson
24th place: DB Adam Jones
No. 25: RB Giovani Bernardo
26th place: DB Bobby Kemp
27th place: DB Artrell Hawkins
28th: RB Corey Dillon
No.29: CB Leon Hall
No.30: S Jessie Bates
31st place: DB Darryl Williams
32nd place: RB Rudi Johnson
33rd place: DB David Fulcher
No. 34: DB Lewis Breeden
No. 35: RB Booby Clark
36th place: S Shawn Williams
No. 37: DB Tommy Casanova
No. 38: CB LeSean Sims
No. 39: DB Sheldon White
No.40: RB Charles Alexander
No. 41: DB Nedou Ndukwe
No.42: RB Booby Clark
No. 43: S George Iloka
No.44: DB Ray Griffin
No.45: RB Archie Griffin
No.46: RB Pete Johnson
No.47: DB Greg Bright
No. 48: TE Brad St. Louis
No.49: LB Guy Frazier
No.50: LB James Francis
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No.51: LB Takeo Spikes
No. 52: LB Tom Dinkel
No. 53: LB Bo Harris
No.54: C Bob Johnson
No. 55: LB Jim LeClair
No.56: LB Brian Simmons
No. 57: LB Reggie Williams
No. 58: LB Ray Maularga
No.59: Landon Johnson
No. 60: LB Ron Pritchard
No.61: OL Russell Bodine
No. 62: OL Dave Lapham
No.63: OL Joe Walter
No. 64: OL Bruce Kozelski
No.65: OL Max Montoya
No. 66: LB Bill Berge
No.67: DL Gary Burley
No.68: OL Kevin Zeitler
No.69: DL Tim Krumley
No.70: DL Ron Carpenter
No.71: OL Willie Anderson
72nd:OL Howard Fest
No. 73: DL Eddie Edwards
No.74: OL Rich Braham
No. 75: OL Bruce Reimers
No. 76: OL Burn Holland
No. 77: OL Andrew Whitworth
No. 78: OL Anthony Munoz
No. 79: DE Ross Browner
No.80: WR Cris Collinsworth
No.81: WR Carl Pickens
No. 82: TE Rodney Holman
No. 83: WR Tyler Boyd
No. 84: WR TJ Houshmandzadeh
No. 85: WR Chad Johnson
