Bengals special teams coordinator wants competition in punter room

Since the Cincinnati Bengals parted ways with long-time punter Kevin Huber, they have had some struggles in that area with younger players like Drue Chrisman and Brad Robbins.

Robbins remains on the roster currently, but special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons wants to bring a veteran in to give Robbins some competition going into the season, but it will depend on what they can do with the salary cap they have left to use at that point.

“There’s a lot of factors that go into that. There’s the salary cap that we have to deal with and sometimes we haven’t had as much room to do that and you have a potential for some savings with everybody going the younger route if they have a chance to develop,” Simmons said to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “It’s easy to always say there’s a veteran player that’s available and that’s easy for me to say, too. But sometimes that’s not always feasible for our team or what’s best for our team.”

Simmons did say that he believes in Robbins, they wouldn’t still have him on the roster otherwise, but after his rookie season was a bit shaky at times they want to try to force the former sixth round pick to improve in a competition.

Signing another punter wouldn’t necessarily mean the Bengals are going to move on from Robbins, but it does give them options at the position.