In his 22nd season as the NFL longest-tenured kicking game coach, Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons has seen it all in training camp.
Except maybe not this.
On Sunday, incumbent punter Brad Robbins occasionally played the role of personal protector during punting drills featuring the booming kicks of college free agents Austin McNamara and Ryan Rehkow.
Both got off what appeared to be 50-yarders with good direction and Rehkow looked to reach 60 yards with a twisting missile to the right sideline.
The Kettering Health Practice Fields have suddenly turned into a college all-star punting showcase. That's just not three punters, but, as Simmons says, "A couple of the top punters in the country in the last year in one place at one time, so that's a cool thing. It's a great problem to have."
If he ever had that problem with three punters before, Simmons says it may have been in a spring. But this is certainly a first with Robbins, last year's sixth-round pick, challenged by two of the top punters in the nation that the Bengals mulled signing after this past draft.
"We didn't even have three punters in college," says Rehkow, regarded by some as the best punter to come out of BYU since old friend Lee Johnson. "The cool thing is I feel like all of us are good at what we do. It kind of causes you to raise your game a little bit to hopefully stand out."
The Bengals, in search of a punter who can hit it deep consistently, needed to fill three roster spots to get to the maximum 90 players and last Friday did what they almost did after the draft and signed Rehkow. Rehkow, available when the Chiefs released him last month during mandatory minicamp, had been projected to be a Bengals' seventh-round pick by The Athletic.
"They were in the top three. I talked to Coach Simmons a lot in the pre-draft process," Rehkow says of the Bengals. "It's good to know they still want to see what I can do."
As the Chiefs were striking quickly with Rehkow once the draft was over, the Bengals were inking McNamara, Texas Tech's long-range artist.
Now it's up to Simmons to figure out how to get all three punts. He has already praised Robbins for how he returned to camp bigger and stronger after a spring he boomed it more consistently than he did his spotty rookie year.
"I have to balance it out. That's my job. The two young guys will get a lot of punts this next week, we'll see where it goes from there," Simmons said. 'They were fantastic in college and it was just a chance for us to take a look at another guy."
A 60-yarder has been no problem for Rehkow. He had a 60-yard punt or more last year in seven games at BYU. That's the school of the Bengals Super Bowl XXIII punter and Lee Johnson stayed a decade after to punt in 169 Bengals games, second only to Kevin Huber in club annals.
PLAYER OF THE DAY: WR Hakeem Butler
Butler knows people talk, but he's glad they do because it's probably why he's here.
Informed after Sunday's Back Together Weekend practice that Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher had heard about him long before he signed his deal Friday, he was surprised but grateful. The towering 6-5, 235-pound Butler has been old friend AJ McCarron's go-to-guy for the St. Louis Battlehawks in the UFL the last two seasons with 110 catches for 2,149 yards and 18 touchdowns on an astounding nearly 20 yards per catch.
Pitcher had to think a minute when asked about the guy wearing 82 since it Sunday was Butler's first practice.
"AJ has been talking about Hakeem for a while," said Pitcher, the Bengals' former quarterbacks coach who spent most of last season with McCarron in his room. "AJ talked about his experience in that league and I'm glad we get a chance to work with him. We're all about getting as many good players as we can and Hakeem is a good player."
Butler, 28, arrived here Friday about a month after winning the UFL's Offensive Player of the Year award and promptly showed why he's a professional wide receiver.
He didn't have a playbook after a Friday morning workout and just watched the afternoon practice and absorbed. After Saturday's off day, McCarron's fellow backup, Jake Browning, wasted no time finding him on a go route in team drills as he cannily separated from rookie cornerback Josh Newton for a touchdown catch with the help of his long arms.
Then he bounced off a couple of rookie defensive backs for two contested catches as he showed his experience from last season's training camp with the Steelers and stints in Philadelphia and Arizona. A fourth-round pick of the Cardinals in 2019 out of Iowa State, the dream lives.
Butler seeks his first NFL catch after playing two games for the Eagles, a one-game stop in the CFL for a catch in Edmonton, and his St. Louis sojourn. The Bengals' stacked receivers room isn't exactly an open invite, but with three-time Pro Bowler Ja'Marr Chase not practicing and Tee Higgins working his way back into form with managed practices, there is room for snaps.
"I want more than that (one NFL catch). I want to have a sustained career," Butler said. "I don't think many guys in my situation being a free agent have the luxury of turning down an opportunity no matter where it is. It's not my focus to worry about the receivers in front of me, I'm just focused on me."
PLAY OF THE DAY: QB Joe Burrow
It's a play that could have been lost in a series of scripted plays. It wasn't a go ball, tip, pick, fumble, sack. And a scuffle didn't ensue. It was simply a catch, but the play did show you why Burrow is the NFL's all-time reigning completion percentage leader.
It was a bench route in 7-on-7 as Burrow went play- action and dropped back near the hash mark. Nobody was open down his right side as he moved slightly up in the pocket and appeared ready to flip a check-down pass. But at the last instant he suddenly saw wide receiver Trenton Irwin beating cornerback D.J. Turner on the left sideline and sifted a seed right in his arms on a line about 40 yards in the air.
Pitcher was still shaking his head after practice.
"He threw it later than he normally would have. That's what was impressive about it," Pitcher said. "We don't really work on that progression much at all. That was really late in the down, so he had to put a little more on it and ripped it.
"There was man coverage and he was hoping to get something on the right side, but there wasn't anything there. He snapped back and saw Trenton winning over the top and it was nice to see him sit back there and throw it that long in the air."
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Bengals rookie tight end Erick Allen Jr., after getting cleared to practice for the first time as a pro Sunday:
"I told some of my teammates, I feel like I just got released from prison. Finally free."
SLANTS AND SCREENS: Left end Sam Hubbard, looking so good after offseason ankle reconstruction, had an MRI Sunday for his knee after leaving practice late in the workout.
During the last team drill, he lay on the sidelines getting worked on extensively by trainer Matt Summers. He got up, put his helmet back on, and appeared ready to go back in until Summers gave him the cut sign. Then they walked off the field together. The initial sense had the Bengals dodging a bullet …
Pro Bowl sacker Trey Hendrickson missed his third straight practice Sunday and he looks to be dealing with a physical issue …
Kicker Evan McPherson popped a couple of 50-yarders at the end of practice, the last one a 52-yarder, and what else is new? No one in the league attempted more 50s last year. That's basically what his offseason has become.
"Really, from the 45 on out," McPherson said. "That's pretty much what I work on. That's where the money is in the games." …
All, the fourth-round pick, didn't appear to work in team or 7-on-7 …
