Bengals scout sees striking similarities between Day 3 draft pick and team's rising star

The Cincinnati Bengals have not been shy about drafting defensive backs in recent years, and the best one they've developed thus far is clearly cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt.

Already entering his third year in Cincinnati, Taylor-Britt is an established starter and emotional catalyst for the defense. He's the secondary's weapon against physical boundary receivers, and has some of the best ball skills in the defensive backfield.  

The way CTB approaches the game is what got the Bengals interested in the first place, and a key scout for the club sees that in their newest cornerback, Josh Newton.

Christian Sarkisian, who's been a Bengals scout for the past six years, couldn't help but notice striking similarities to Taylor-Britt in his evaluation of Newton, whom the team drafted in the fifth round last month.

“[Newton's] love of football and his transition from an offensive player to a defensive player, it’s really similar to Cam Taylor-Britt," Sarkisian told The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr. "Just doing both their backgrounds, in terms of the edge those guys play with, the level of competition those guys play with."

There are certainly levels to this. For starters, Taylor-Britt was a wide receiver, safety, and quarterback in high school before sticking to the defensive backfield for Nebraska. 

Newton was originally recruited as a wide receiver out of high school despite playing cornerback as well. He made the transition to cornerback after being redshirted his first year with Louisiana-Monroe.

While Taylor-Britt never transferred from Nebraska and left for the NFL after four years, Newton opted to transfer to TCU after his four years were up at Louisiana-Monroe. When Newton arrived at a big-time program, his intensity became more publicly known.

His speech in front of all his teammates leading up to the Horned Frogs' run to the College Football Playoff became an iconic bullet point in that magical journey. The passion Newton carries with him as a player is palpable.