Punter Change Coming? Darrin Simmons Hints at Potential Switch During Bengals' Bye Week

A change could be coming during the Bengals' bye.

Author:
James Rapien
Publish date:
Nov 7, 2022 7:09 PM EST

In this story:

Cincinnati Bengals

CINCINNATI — Could Kevin Huber's days be numbered?

The veteran punter has struggled in recent weeks. Special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons didn't rule out a potential change.

"We've constantly been evaluating this whole thing. Obviously, our punting game has got to improve," Simmons said on Monday. "We're not getting out of it what we need to get out of it, in terms of flipping the field. It's something we'll take a look at over this bye week and try to figure out what the best thing is going forward. I want to do what’s right for the team. We got to do what’s right by the team. Whether that’s Kevin punting, we’ll try to figure it out. That's something we'll talk about; I'll think about. We've got however many days to figure that out, but this is something that has sort of been building over some time, for sure. We've got to do something to put our team in a good spot to control field position, and we've got to be better with that."

The Bengals beat the Panthers on Sunday to improve to 5-4 on the season. They have a Week 10 bye, before playing in Pittsburgh on Nov. 20.

The Bengals do have punter Drue Chrisman on the practice squad. He has a stronger leg than Huber, but the veteran beat out the youngster in training camp.

Huber has averaged just 38.1 yards on seven punts over the last two games.

"He’s got himself in a bit of a slump," Simmons said. "He made a great analogy: He’s great on the practice range, he’s just not taking it to the first tee. His practices have been pretty solid. His pregame warmups have been pretty solid. He’s just not taking it to the game. He’s got to figure out how to get that from the range to the first tee. He’s just not doing a very good job of that right now."

Chrisman has warmed up in full uniform on gameday as the team continues to groom him for the role. The punter also serves as the holder on field goal and extra point attempts, but he fared well in the department and punting is what kept him from winning the job in camp.

That didn’t factor into it at all. Drue holds every day in practice. They split it up. Kevin always takes the majority of the reps. Drue always gets a couple," Simmons said. "I tracked every possible scenario and combination of snapper and holder (during camp). It was virtually a dead heat with Clark (Harris) snapping and Kevin holding or Clark snapping and Drue holding or Cal (Adomitis) snapping and Drue holding or whatever. There was zero difference between it."

If the Bengals were ever going to turn to Chrisman this season, this seems like the perfect time to make a change.

"There were certain things that Drue needed to improve on coming out of camp," Simmons said. "I identified with him the reason he didn't make our team. To (use) a golf equation a little bit, it's like the changes he needed to make would've been like him trying to make the week before the Masters. It's difficult to make a bunch of changes like that when you're ready to go into competition. Those are changes that have to be made earlier, way back in the offseason. Ultimately, you could go backwards if you make those changes right before he's getting ready to play in preseason games. Knowing we've had some time ever since he's been on the practice squad, we've had more time to tweak and adjust. He's been very receptive to that and really, he's been punting the ball well in practice."

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