The Cincinnati Bengals welcome T.Y. Hilton and the Indianapolis Colts to town in Week 8, which happens to bring back a few memories for the franchise.

These Bengals would’ve loved to draft Hilton back in 2012, yet missed out on him by all of one spot thanks to the Colts.

Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com recently brought up the topic: “But he’s dangerous. The Bengals know that as well as anybody. They coveted Hilton during the 2012 draft season and were poised to take him late in the third round with the 93rd pick when the Colts stunned them and took him off the board at No. 92.”

Talk about an interesting ripple effect. The Bengals decided to use two first-round picks in 2012 on corner (Dre Kirkpatrick) and guard (Kevin Zeitler) and still wound up drafting two wideouts. They got Mohamed Sanu at No. 83 in the third round, then just missed on Hilton before using the fifth-round pick via the Chad Ochocinco trade to nab Marvin Jones.

Of course, both Sanu and Jones are gone now. Here’s a list of the wideouts drafted since:

Cobi Hamilton

James Wright

Mario Alford

Tyler Boyd

Cody Core

John Ross

Josh Malone

The jury is still out on those last four names, though it’s clear the team hasn’t had stunning success drafting the position since 2012. It’s not fair to cast too much judgment in hindsight, but keeping one of Sanu or Jones might have the offense in a better spot right now.

As for Hilton, we can’t know if he would’ve panned out the same in Cincinnati. He teamed up with rookie Andrew Luck to score seven touchdowns in 2012, tied for his career high. He’s evolved into one of the most robust, dangerous wideouts in the league since.

These situations happen all the time in the NFL, this being a timely one to keep in mind this weekend — T.Y. Hilton and A.J. Green would’ve been fun, right?