Jake Browning is new to the Cincinnati Bengals’ backfield. He’ll make his fourth start at quarterback when the Bengals take on the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday.

But blocking for Browning isn’t new for Cincinnati right offensive tackle Jonah Williams. The players were teammates at Folsom High School in California.

In the pair’s final prep game together, Folsom defeated Oceanside 68-7 in the Division I California State Championship Bowl in 2014.

“It’s hard not to think back a little bit, reminisce a little bit – 10 years ago playing together in high school,” Williams said. “Kind of crazy to go out and play NFL games with him now. Shout out to Folsom High. Just won state again, so a little dynasty over there we were part of building. It’s been awesome to play with him and kind of live out the high school dream together.”

Browning threw 91 touchdown passes in 2014 and 229 in three seasons for Folsom. He chose Washington to play college football.

After another season at Folsom, Williams went to Alabama, where he played left tackle for the Crimson Tide’s 2017 CFP national-championship team and earned unanimous All-American recognition in 2018.

Williams joined the Bengals as the 11th pick of the 2019 NFL Draft and has started all 55 games that he’s started for Cincinnati – the first 42 at left tackle and 13 this season at right tackle.

Despite a prolific career as a four-year starter at Washington, Browning was not selected in the 2019 NFL Draft. He had played four offensive snaps in an NFL regular-season game when he was thrust into the Cincinnati lineup when Joe Burrow suffered a season-ending wrist injury on Nov. 16.

The Bengals lost Browning’s first start 16-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers but have beaten the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-31 in overtime and Indianapolis Colts 34-14 in the past two games.

Williams described Browning as “calm, cool, collected” as he leads the Cincinnati offense down the stretch of the 2023 regular season in pursuit of a playoff berth.

The Bengals and Vikings square off at noon CST Saturday at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. NFL Network will televise the game.

Both teams have 7-6 records with four games remaining on their regular-season schedules.

As one of the five NFC teams with a winning record in 2023, Minnesota is currently penciled into a wild-card spot in the conference’s postseason projections. But with 11 AFC teams owning winning records, the Bengals are 10th in the conference’s playoff pecking order.

Cincinnati’s drive for the playoffs will continue with road games against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 23 and Kansas City Chiefs on Dec. 31 and a home contest against the Cleveland Browns in the regular-season finale on Jan. 7.

The Bengals have played in the past two AFC Championship games, but that was with Burrow as the starting quarterback.

“We’re confident as a group and confident as a unit,” Williams said. “I know we had really high expectations coming into this year, and we still have those same beliefs in ourselves and we still have those same goals.

“We got four games down the stretch where we have to really elevate it up a notch. We’re playing some great teams. To get to where we want to go, we really have to be on our game.”

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