Former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Rashaun Simonise will suit up for the Okanagan Sun this weekend.

The 21-year-old will arrive in Kelowna on Tuesday, just weeks after taking the field with the Bengals during preseason NFL play.

Simonise, a former CIS All-Canadian athlete, made 51 catches for 1,079 yards and 11 touchdowns playing for the University of Calgary Dinos in 2015.

He was scooped up during the NFL supplemental draft this spring, and played for the Bengals during the preseason, before being released Sept. 3.

Simonise will bring his NFL-level talents to bear against the amateur junior players of the Canadian Junior Football League, four years after the Sun initially recruited him out of high school.

Ben Macauley, the head coach of the Sun, says there are players in the league developing into first-class athletes, but “there’s not really anyone who we can compare him against right now.”

His impact on the field for the Sun, Macauley says, will be “substantial.”

“He’s such a strong athlete that you can’t cover him with just one guy, you have to cover him with two, and that will open up plays for our other talented athletes,” he says.

MacAuley also points out that Simonise is deadly on the return, and teams will either have to kick to him, or straight out of bounds, giving the Sun great starting field position all season long.

On my way up ⬆️ pic.twitter.com/yIdNpjj3HP — Rashaun Simonise (@SIMZUPNEXT2) August 30, 2016

The Canadian Junior Football League is an amateur league, and as soon as a player goes pro they become ineligible to play in it.

The Bengals released Simonise after the pre-season, meaning he still wasn’t activated on the team’s roster heading into the regular season, and still qualified for amateur-league play.

According to Macauley, Simonise also wasn’t eligible for the CFL because his official draft year for that league won’t start until the spring, and no team can pick him up until that time.

Macauley freely admits Simonise has “bigger things in store” than squaring off against amateur players in the CJFL.

“If he doesn’t get picked up by an NFL team for the remainder of this season, he’s likely to go first round and end up playing in the CFL right away,” he said.

Neverthless, Macauley said he’s happy Simonise will be taking the field with the Sun even for a short window.

He says the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Vancouver native will suit up for the team’s Canadian Bowl rematch with the Saskatoon Hilltops at the Apple Bowl on Saturday (7 p.m.).