Bengals Beat: Ryan Rehkow Emerging As A Secret Weapon, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins Ready for Ravens D

CINCINNATI — Darrin Simmons remembers quite vividly the 2022 AFC championship game and how the last minute unfolded.

Moments before Joseph Ossai pushed Patrick Mahomes out of bounds for a 15-yard unnecessary roughing foul, Drue Chrisman booted a low line drive punt down the middle of the field that Skyy Moore returned 29 yards to the Chiefs 48.

Between the punt return and the 15-yard penalty, the Chiefs had plenty of yardage to give Harrison Butker a chance to kick the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, and eventually a Super Bowl title.

It’s a punt that essentially served as a wake-up call to the Bengals special teams coordinator that the punt game needed work – and improvement. The Bengals prioritized it so much they spent a fifth round pick on Brad Robbins out of Michigan in the 2023 draft.

Robbins would beat out Chrisman for the job in training camp but had his struggles with consistency, averaging just 40.3 yards in net average and spotting only 20 of 76 punts inside the 20. Those numbers were good for 25th and 23rd in the NFL last season, respectively.

While Robbins showed some significant signs of improvement in the offseason, Simmons was on the lookout for ways to challenge Robbins and bring in competition to improve the position. Enter Ryan Rehkow, the undrafted rookie out of BYU.

He had just been cut by Kansas City in June and was looking for a spot to land when Simmons and the Bengals gave him a call.

At 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, the rookie out of BYU showed immediately he could put some thunder behind his punts. Rehkow played in 50 games during his time at BYT and recorded 176 punts with a gross average of 47.4 yards and 74 downed inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.

Robbins and Rehkow were sharing duties in camp when Robbins strained his quad. That was the end of Robbins time with the Bengals as Rehkow took ahold of the job and didn’t let go.

Fast forward to Sunday in Charlotte, the punter came up with the punt of the season, a 50-yarder that pinned the Panthers at their own 8 with 4:42 left in the fourth as the Bengals were protecting a 31-24 lead.

Rehkow is just one punt shy of qualifying for the league leaders. He has punted nine times for a gross average of 58.4 yards, including a team-record 80-yarder against the Patriots in Week 1. His net average is 49.7 yards. Both would lead the NFL.

“He has on multiple occasions, been able to dig us out of a hole,” Simmons said. “From a field position standpoint, is a huge, huge, huge factor for us. I think obviously you could see this. Everybody can see it. He came here with leg talent, and that’s something I can’t coach. And the ball just gets small when he hits it sometimes when it goes up in the air.

“I’ve not seen anybody can hit the ball as high and as far as he can, the combination. I’ve seen guys can get the ball higher. I can see guys can hit the ball far. But to do the combination of is pretty rare.”

What Simmons wanted to see in August was a commitment to consistency and in September he delivered.

“I try not to think about it too much in terms of like, ‘Hey, this is a really good situation.’ I try to think maybe we can help the team just because we don’t have a lot of opportunities,” Rehkow told me. “So, I feel like every single one for us, whether it’s the first quarter the fourth quarter, everyone feels like a big opportunity, just because you don’t know how many are going to come after that.”

NFLPA speaks on new locker room guidelines:

Bengals player rep Ted Karras explained Thursday the new guidelines around the NFL designed to provide more privacy for players during the week.

“In an effort to protect the sanctity of the locker room and the comfort of the players, each team is gonna figure out a program to where we conduct our interviews outside of the locker room,” Karras said. “Now this doesn’t bar you from the locker room. We can’t do that. But what we want to do is get cameras off guys in private moments in our locker room. We want to make this as smooth as possible. This is not an indictment against you. This is what our membership feels is best for the players.

“This has been a topic of conversation since COVID. With the COVID protocol, when no one was in the locker room. It’s been brought up several times since then. Now we figure it’s the time to do it. But we’re still gonna have everyone – we’ll still be available. Really we just want to protect – I think what brought it to light was a couple guys naked on camera this year. I know that’s happened a few times throughout the history of the league. But this will not affect gameday, I don’t think. We’re gonna come up with a good solution to make the week as smooth as possible, get everyone the time they need and again, protect the sanctity of the locker room.”

In response to a later question, Karras clarified that the new rules are “not an excuse to avoid the media.”

“No, we are contractually obligated to be available one time a week for questions. At least to talk, one time a week, available all days but we’re required to talk once a week. That will not be an issue…We want to make this as smooth as possible. I know this is an inconvenience to you. But again, with the recent incidents in the league and what our NFLPA membership wants, we’re implementing this.”