Popular former Bengals UDFA becomes starter for Lions

When it comes to Cincinnati Bengals undrafted free agents, Seth McLaughlin was one of the more notable and liked by fans over the last few years. 

No wonder. McLaughlin was very successful at the college level with Ohio State and, as a center, played a spot that is usually pretty needy on the interior of the offensive line in Cincinnati. 

McLaughlin eventually worked his way back from injury as a rookie and landed on the practice squad. But this past January, he signed a reserve/future contract with the Detroit Lions.

Now he’s the starter. 

Thanks to an injury in front of him, McLaughlin is opening up at starting center in training camp ahead of Detroit’s first preseason game and apparently faring pretty well. 

This one hurts a bit for the Bengals and fans, all things considered. Besides everything mentioned, McLaughlin was the top-ranked player who wasn’t drafted last year. 

On paper, McLaughlin looked like the no-brainer of a starting center for a long time with the Bengals once Ted Karras departed. Instead, the Bengals now hope that’s Connor Lew, but McLaughlin’s progress will be a pretty interesting thing to track in the coming months, if not years.

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Popular former Bengals UDFA becomes starter for Lions