Paul Dehner Jr.

pdehnerjr@enquirer.com

While driving home from his new business office at the practice facility of the Cleveland Browns this week, a thought came over Andrew Hawkins while pondering his return to Paul Brown Stadium.

For all the familiarity associated with returning to the city that adopted him and home of a franchise that resurrected his professional career, he won't quite know what to do when entering the player entrance Thursday night.

"I've never been in the visiting locker room," said Hawkins, who electrified PBS from 2011-13. "I have no idea what it looks like, I don't know what it's going to be like to be on the visitors' sideline of the stadium."

Partially because he's never felt like a visitor in Cincinnati.

From the moment he turned heads as the lightning-quick kid from the Canadian Football League at training camp in Georgetown, Kentucky, three years ago, he entrenched himself as a centerpiece of the family culture to take over the Bengals locker room.

Terence Newman laughs thinking about countless nights having dinner with Hawkins, his wife and son, Austin, while Andrew told story after story leaving the room in stitches.

A smile instantly crosses over George Iloka's face when the topic of Hawkins enters the conversation. He instinctually glances to the locker which lived just down from his for his first two seasons in the NFL and remembers the daily laughs.

Hawkins recalls everyone gathering at Marvin Jones' wedding this offseason. Receivers coach James Urban was there, A.J. Green, Mohamed Sanu. Baby Hawk may have flown to play in Cleveland, but that moment solidified his heart would always hold a spot for the group that grew from rookies to stars of the NFL together.

"With Marvin and A.J., it's not just football," said Hawkins, who caught 86 passes for 995 yards and four touchdowns in Cincinnati. "We were a close receiving corps over there. Marvin's kids, Mo comes around. Me and Mo went to Marvin's wedding, and Mo hung out with Austin for two days straight. He took him everywhere with him. And A.J., too. He views them more as his uncles than he views them as football players."

They may always feel like family, but Thursday they'll be opponents, assuming Hawkins can mend fast enough to play. He took a vicious hit to the thigh last week against Tampa Bay and is listed as questionable.

His presence will be essential to the Browns' offensive success. The 5-foot-7, 180-pound jitterbug out of Toledo not only grew in the pocketbook upon signing a four-year, $13.6 million frontloaded deal in March, but grew in production as well. Pigeonholed into the slot with the Bengals, Hawkins took his act to the outside as well with the Browns and leads the team in receptions (39) and yards (504).

"Originally we just saw him as a slot receiver when we went into our three-wide groupings," Browns coach Mike Pettine said. "He's proven to be so much more than that."

The Bengals can only wonder how much more he could have provided had the team allowed his departure as a restricted free agent. The front office opted to place the lowest level tender on Hawkins, which meant a team didn't owe any compensation for signing him away. For only $756K more this season a second-level tender would have required a second-round draft pick in exchange and essentially locked Hawkins into Bengals stripes for another season.

At the time, his departure could be rationalized. With Marvin Jones, Tyler Eifert, Giovani Bernard and so many other offensive weapons, where would the snaps come from? Well, as weapon after weapon went down Hawkins would have been a nice piece to plug into the rotation.

Those scenarios expose a hindsight neither side cares to revisit and Hawkins doesn't hold an ounce of animosity toward the decision to let him dangle at the lowest tender.

"I wasn't bitter that they didn't tag me higher," said Hawkins, explaining he'd always feel in debt to a franchise that gave himself and his older brother, Artrell, a chance in the NFL. "It's a business. The route that I've taken where I've done scouting and I've worked in front offices and I've seen it from both sides, I understand where they were coming from. They were trying to make a business decision. Depending on how you look at it, it didn't work out to their best advantage. That's what business is about. You win some and you lose some."

In order to win one tonight, the Bengals utilize an untested rookie Darqueze Dennard in the slot against Hawkins with Leon Hall missing the game due to a concussion. Hall knows all too well the challenge whoever lines up across from Hawkins will face.

"He'll give you the most work out of anybody," Hall said, earlier in the season. "I'll promise you that. Even in practice, in the one-on-ones, you have to be completely ready to go against him. As great as A.J. is, I'd much rather go against A.J. than go against Hawkins."

Newman anticipates a parade of Bengals players lining up to greet Hawkins before the game. In many ways, his mark still remains on a team that now defines itself by camaraderie and family atmosphere. Such was an environment Hawkins helped cultivate.

He attempts a repeat of those developments with his new team in the locker room he'll follow the signs to find in the hallways of the building he called home for three years. Eventually, he will return to the familiar turf to play a football game that won't feel quite like all the rest. Hawkins may be a visitor for Thursday Night Football, but he'll always feel at home and welcome at PBS.

"It is going to be emotional," Hawkins said. "I'm not going to shy away from that. I'm an emotional guy. But at the same time the thing that has always carried me through is I have a job to do and that's going to be my focus. "But it is special to come back and play in that stadium in front of those fans and everybody that embraced me for so long. It means a lot to me and my family."