Invited to Paycor Stadium to help Who Dey Nation celebrate the NFL Draft, Bengals great A.J. Green's mere presence a few hours before Thursday's first round got underway offered a reminder of just how good he was.

No wide receiver is going No. 4 this year as Green did in 2011 during the draft that put the Bengals back on the map with five straight playoff seasons.

Well, there is a guy. Colorado's Travis Hunter. But is he a wide receiver or a cornerback?

"There's no player like you in this draft," a Bengals official told him.

The Bengals drafted early and well that weekend. Green became the first wide receiver in NFL history to go to seven straight Pro Bowls to start his career. A round later on the next day, they chose franchise quarterback Andy Dalton. Green hopes they can pull it off again even though they're picking much later at No. 17.

But on the other side of the ball.

"Have to draft edge, right?" asked Green, fretting his two fellow Georgia Bulldogs who play that exact position are going to be gone by then.

Green loves Jalon Walker's tightly-wound defensive makeup and Mykel Williams' cathedral ceiling.

"I think we draft well. Draft a couple of defensive ends and get that defense back to where it was," Green said. "Just get into the top 15. The offense will take care of the rest."

Green, 36, has been out of the game three years and hasn't caught a ball for the Bengals in five. Yet he looks pretty much the way he looked when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called his name 14 years ago and brought him up on the New York stage for the obligatory hug.

"Besides having my kids, best day of my life," Green said. "It was so surreal. I had my whole family there. They all saw little A.J. grow up, and he wanted to play sports. My mom. My father. My cousin. My uncle. They saw me grow up. A couple of friends from high school."

More than 10,000 yards and 700 catches later, Green still runs on family. His finance' on the stage that day, Miranda, has given him two sons and a decade of marriage. He considers the Bengals part of it. Bengals president Mike Brown greeted Green Thursday in his office wondering how tall eight-year-old EZ and six-year-old Gunnar are now.

They're back in Arizona playing baseball, and their dad, an assistant coach, is missing practice Thursday and Saturday nights. They play football, too, and the parents want him to be the head coach.

"Not yet,' Green said. "Moving around too much to be the head coach."

But "mentor," fits him nicely. In an offseason Bengals wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins dominated the news cycle with their record contracts, don't forget it was Green who helped break in Higgins and quarterback Joe Burrow during their weird rookie year of COVID and chaos in 2020 that turned out to be Green's last as a Bengal.

First of all, Green teamed with Higgins, a 21-year-old who professed Green was his idol.

"That made me feel old," Green said. "And it was the first time I had a young quarterback when I was the older receiver because Andy and I came in together and we grew up together. It was fun being with Joe. I knew right away he was special."

Green is one of those gleaming bridges franchises are lucky to have. He made a sliding catch in the final seconds to set up Dalton's last game-winning drive as a Bengal. He caught Burrow's first NFL first-down pass on an 11-yard slant.

And he passed the torch to Higgins, the one he took from Chad Johnson. Except in '11, Green didn't get to have a great like Johnson breaking him in like Higgins did, and Green made sure he gave Higgins what he missed that rookie year. It was easy because they had the same basketballish game and placid personality.

"Just to be a pro and Tee took that approach every day," Geen said. "He practiced hard. For him to be able to come in being that mature, that made him special. I didn't get to play with Ja'Marr and I don't really know him like that. But just knowing Tee, I know where he came from. We're both quiet. But he knows he can call me anytime if he needs something. We talked when he signed."

What hit home to Green right away was how Burrow conducted himself in the locker room.

"His leadership. How he approached the game. He was so mature," Green said. "Being the No. 1 pick, coming in and living up to those expectations. The way he would talk in the meetings at that young age."

Green recalled how Burrow stepped up when the team put together its statement on social justice on the eve of the season.

"That's what you want out of your quarterback. You want a guy that's going to stand up for the right thing," Green said. "For him to come in at that young of an age and make that stand, that speaks volumes."

That's how Green sees his legacy at Paycor. Not a lot of words. Plenty of action.

How good was he? Good enough to call his own legacy.

"How I treated people. Everyone knows my accomplishments. My play on the field spoke volumes," said Green, the kid who is still showing the kids how to play even if it is now baseball. "I was the guy that showed up every Sunday and got double-teamed. I lived up to where I was drafted. I played the game the right way. I know what I put in this game. I can live with the results with no regrets."

Look as hard as you want Thursday night up on the stage. You won't see anybody like him.