Bengals rookie center Seth McLaughlin did the anti-Joe Burrow and took off for the Buckeyes from the Southeastern Conference, and now both have found an NFL home in Cincinnati. That's southwest Ohio and, as McLaughlin is finding out, the AFC North.

"I've been an SEC football guy. That's what I know. I didn't really watch a whole lot of NFL growing up," McLaughlin says. "I know who's in the division. I know about half the AFC teams now. I'm learning."

Which McLaughlin does quite well as a 4.0 student at Buford High School on the leafy side of Atlanta. He snapped another summa cum laude 4.0 to graduate from the University of Alabama. He finished his career with the Buckeyes last season majoring in heartbreak.

The Bengals did enough homework on him to make sure the most coveted undrafted offensive lineman stayed in Ohio.

Long-time Buckeyes strength guru Mickey Marotti, who coached both Burrow and McLaughlin in Columbus, thinks it's a no-brainer.

Here's a guy who played 47 games in the middle of two of the bluest-bloodest programs in the nation.

"He just knows how to play the game. Great personality. He'll fit right into that locker room." Marotti says. "He's got a little bit of Joe in him, now. Their humor is very similar. Little dry humor."

Then Burrow, an ancient 28, would probably get a kick out of this arid story. The SEC kid followed that LSU team Burrow took all the way.

"I grew up watching him through the whole high school process," McLaughlin says. "He's a hell of a quarterback. The offense is always going to be good while he's here."

Burrow is a factor in McLaughlin choosing the Bengals in those hectic moments after the draft. "Yeah, that helps. A really good program that wins a lot of games and scores a lot of points."

But there are plenty of other reasons. Start with that once strange place called Ohio and add Bengals offensive line coach Scott Peters’ strike system, a version of which the Buckeyes' line used this past season.

"I love Ohio after being here for a year and a half now. I just fell in love with the place, and being an hour and a half down the road, it wasn't a very hard move," McLaughlin says. "There's a lot of carryover in the fan base and support that I have. I'm super close to Columbus if I ever need anything there.

"Nothing really made sense like staying in Ohio and coming down to Cincinnati. Great technical coaching and a great training staff to help me get fully healthy. Just having the best opportunity to get developed with really good vets in the room to help me along. This just made the most sense."

McLaughlin needs the training room because he tore his Achilles' in November, 10 games into what he called his best season. Still good enough to win the Rimington Trophy as the best center in the country. But not good enough to get drafted, even though his goal is to be cleared by training camp.

"Even still, on that Saturday, I thought I was going to be drafted. I heard from a lot of teams from my agent, and even former coaches, saying fourth or fifth round," McLaughlin says. "And then, I don't know what happened. They started freaking out about the medical part, I guess, even though it's the best you can be five months out of an Achilles' surgery. It was definitely humbling, but it is what it is. It was hard there for about an hour. And then we figured out I was coming here and had a few celebratory beverages."

McLaughlin hung in with the Buckeyes all the way to the national championship, and Marotti says he was a big part of it. He particularly points to the 20-13 grinding win over Penn State as the Buckeye offense reeled from two big injuries at left tackle in the weeks before.

"To me, the turning point in our season happened at Penn State and he took over more of a leadership role during that game," Marotti says. "I think coming in like that in his first year, it's tough being the new guy. But I just felt he was thinking, 'I've got to do what I've got to do. We've got to win this game,' and we kind of took it over. We had some injuries on offense. Somebody had to be the leader and it was Seth and (new left tackle Donovan Jackson)."

Marotti admired how Mclaughlin came into the program knowing virtually no one, yet winning the respect of everyone from the coaches to the trainers down the line in the program. "He came in with the right frame of mind. Professional. You have to earn everything."

Marotti, who has been in this thing for 40 years, thinks McLaughlin has a terrific shot to make it. The way he sees it on the O-line, if you've got some size and you're tough and you're smart, you make it, and at 6-4, 304 pounds, McLaughlin more than qualifies. Even, he says, when the kid doesn't bowl you over with chiseled looks or 90% percentile workouts.

He just wins.

"He knows how to block. He knows angles," Marotti says. "He's blocked in the SEC. He's blocked in the Big Ten. Those guys know. Blocking real people."

He'll get plenty of realism at this level. And he's real enough to come in here like he went into Ohio State.

"There are a ton of guys in the room that have been around. A ton to learn from," McLaughlin says. "And whenever I'm healthy and I'm good to play football, it's nice to have all that knowledge. The main thing is just getting healthy and then learning the playbook, and then seeing where that goes."

It's already gone to Ohio, which is just fine with the kid from the SEC.

"The people are great. They're gritty. It's a fun environment to be around," McLaughlin says. "And they definitely love their football."