Jeremy Hill, Odell Beckham Jr. bonding; visit with injured James Wright

Jeremy Hill and Odell Beckham Jr. are admittedly good friends who shared memorable careers with the LSU Tigers in college.

Beckham Jr. joined the Tigers in the Class of 2011, and Hill made it to Baton Rouge the following spring. From there, the two would help lead the Tigers to a 20-6 mark over the next two seasons before declaring for the 2014 NFL Draft. The two combined for over 3,700 all-purpose yards in the 2013 season in which they were the 1-2 punch of the Tigers' offense.

In the 2014 draft, the two would only be drafted one round apart as Beckham Jr. went to the Giants with the No. 12 pick, while Hill went to the Bengals at No. 55 overall. Based on how both performed during their rookie years, seeing them both go in the top 10 if there were a draft do-over isn't out of the question.

Hill gashed opposing defenses during the 2014 season's final eight weeks with 929 yards (105 more than any other player) and 5.4 per carry (highest during that stretch) to finish eighth in the NFL with 1,124 yards and tied for third with nine rushing scores.

Beckham Jr. only played in 12 games, but managed to catch 91 passes for 1,305 yards with 12 touchdowns. His 108.8 receiving yards per game led the league, and his 12 TD catches were tied for the fourth most. Hamstring issues prevented OBJ from having perhaps one of the greatest seasons ever by an NFL receiver. That's why Hill sees big things from his former teammate this year, via Bengals.com:

"I think this year his confidence is at an extreme high, just when I’ve been talking to him. He’s getting healthy. Last year he wasn’t healthy at all, none of the year. That’s what makes it crazy what he did in those games, he wasn’t healthy in any of them. This year he’s trying to get to Week 1 at 100 percent, and if that happens, then obviously the sky’s the limit for him."

Needless to say, the former Tiger duo took the league by storm during their rookie years, and this week, they're finally back on the same playing field. However, they're both going against each other as the Bengals and Giants hold joint practices Tuesday and Wednesday before their preseason opener against each other on Friday night.

As for what Hill and OBJ are up to while together in Cincinnati, they actually went to visit their former Tiger teammate James Wright, whom the Bengals drafted in the seventh round of that same 2014 draft. When the Giants arrived Monday night, Hill picked up Beckham and drove him over to see Wright to cheer him up after season-ending knee surgery, via the Dayton Daily News:

"I brought him by James’ house and kind of lifted up Jimmy a little bit and put a smile on his face," Hill said, adding that Wright just had surgery on his injured knee that landed him on season-ending injured reserve last month.

As for this week's matchup against each other, Hill and Beckham aren't focussed on each other, but more interested in life and friendship outside of football, something that will hopefully last far longer than either of their NFL careers.

"We talk about everything else. Football is a small piece of everything else," Hill said. "We would definitely talk about it if we had a similar opponent or something like that, we’d pick each other’s brains. For the most part we’re just catching up, just talking about random stuff."

Even when this week is over and the two are hundreds of miles apart again, Hill and Beckham will be keeping up with each other throughout the year as they've done since coming to the NFL. But the league is a business, and both will have massive expectations placed upon them this year as they look to carry their respective teams to the playoffs and possibly further.

"The expectations are definitely there for both of us this year," Hill said. "But we really don’t talk about pressure. We just talk about going out there and having fun. When you have fun, you’re playing loose and fast and everything else takes care of itself. You really don’t think about all the outside noise. Once you’re between those lines you’re only focusing on football. That’s what we do. That’s what we’ve been doing our whole lives."