Over the past two years, Jonah Williams has started 37 games at left offensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals. Even though they’ll be paying him $12.604 million, the Bengals don’t plan to have Williams play a single snap there in the 2023 season.

The former Alabama All-American has been replaced by Orlando Brown Jr.

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A Pro Bowler in each of the past four seasons, Brown played left tackle for Kansas City in the Chiefs’ 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12, but he has left in free agency for Cincinnati’s offer of a four-year, $64.092 million contract.

“I’m super thankful for the opportunity to carry on my father’s legacy and be a left tackle,” Brown told NFL Network. “It was important to be able to play that position and play for a winning team and a winning quarterback.”

Brown’s father was not a left tackle. Orlando Brown Sr. played in nine NFL seasons as a right tackle. But he considered left tackle the glamour spot of the offensive line and, while he was alive, wouldn’t stand for his son playing anywhere else in the front five.

But Orlando Brown Jr. played right tackle in his first two NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens before getting his first NFL chance at left tackle when Ronnie Stanley got hurt in 2020. In 2021, the Ravens traded Brown to Kansas City, where he settled in at left tackle.

“We brought him here to be that left tackle,” Bengals offensive-line coach Frank Pollack said on Thursday during an appearance on “In the Trenches with Dave Lapham.”

Where does that leave Williams?

Williams will be in the mix to earn the starting job at right tackle, Pollack said.

Williams sustained a dislocated kneecap in Cincinnati’s 24-17 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 15 in the first round of the NFL playoffs, and he missed the Bengals’ remaining two games.

When Williams got hurt, Cincinnati already was playing without right tackle La’el Collins, who missed the rest of the season after sustaining a knee injury on Dec. 24.

Hakeem Adeniji went in at right tackle for Collins, and Jackson Carman stepped in at left tackle for Williams. Collins, Adeniji and Carman remain on the Bengals’ roster.

“We see competition always brings out the best in everybody,” Pollack said about Cincinnati’s right tackle for the 2023 season. “Obviously, you got L.C., as well, rehabbing. We’ll move Jonah over there. We feel really good about that bringing out the best out of everybody and making the line stronger.

“That’s what’s unique about this league. It’s a competitive league, and that’s why only the best carve out a career and play in this league. It’s no different. We’re just a microcosm of the whole league in general. We’re excited for that to develop and bring out the best of what we got here in our room in the offense line.”

Williams worked as Alabama’s right tackle as a freshman in 2016, then played left tackle in 2017 and 2018.

After earning unanimous All-American recognition in his final season with the Crimson Tide, Williams joined the Bengals as the 11th selection in the 2019 NFL Draft.

An offseason shoulder injury delayed his pro debut until 2020. Injuries also cost him six games in that season. In 2021, Williams played every offensive snap in all of Cincinnati’s games but one. Like most of the Bengals’ top players, he sat out the regular-season finale, as Cincinnati prepared for a postseason run that carried it to Super Bowl LVI.

Last offseason, the Bengals picked up their option on Williams’ contract for a fifth season, guaranteeing him a payday of $12.604 million for the 2023.

Williams played all but six of Cincinnati’s offensive snaps during the 2022 regular season before he got hurt in the playoffs.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.