As my dad always loved to say, “What goes around comes around.”
One year ago at this time, Brad Robbins, a sixth-round selection of the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2023 NFL Draft, was making preparations to replace a punting legend in Kevin Huber. Now, it’s his turn.
When former Texas Tech punter Austin McNamara signed with the Bengals as an undrafted free agent, he brought with him quite the resume. McNamara finished as the best punter in school history, averaging 46.3 yards per punt as a senior and recording only seven touchbacks in 55 attempts. Opponents fair caught 27 of his punts, and 24 were downed inside the 20.
He also boasted an average hang time of 4.25 seconds, which ranked among the nation’s best. Pro Football Focus gave McNamara an overall grade of 87.6, which ranked third in the country.
Robbins, on the other hand, averaged just 44.3 yards over his 76 punts, placing him near the bottom of the NFL standings. He also managed to put just 20 punts inside the opponent’s 20. Instead of being threatened by the competition, though, Robbins welcomes it.
“That’s a chance to learn from another punter,” Robbins said in an interview with Bengals.com. “You can learn from each other, build each other up, have a good relationship, but still compete. Any competition will be good.”
When Robbins was drafted by Cincinnati, the second person who greeted him was Huber, the man he was replacing. He offered that same kind of encouragement to McNamara.
Good dude or not, Robbins is not about to give up his job without a fight. And, while it will certainly be an upheld battle, McNamara is equally ready to embrace the challenge. He knows that Bengals special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Darrin Simmons will give him a fair shot, which is why he chose Cincinnati in the first place.
McNamara became familiar with Simmons as the coach who runs the kicking drills at the NFL scouting combine. Simmons also visited Lubbock for McNamara’s pro day and conducted a Zoom interview with McNamara shortly before the draft.
“We had that personal connection over the last month and a half before the draft and that definitely weighed in my decision,” McNamara said. “We talked during the back end of the draft. He’s very unique in that he’s got a punting background. That really intrigued me. My agent told me a little bit about him. I looked up some stuff about Coach Simmons and my agent told me he’s been in the game a long time. A great coach. I trusted that, and I’ve seen it first-hand here.”
At 6-foot-5, McNamara will be one of the tallest punters Simmons has worked with since his first spring in Cincinnati way back in 2003. That height can prove to be a real advantage.
“I think so,” Simmons says. “It’s about foot speed. The faster you can get your foot from point A to point B. If the lever (leg) is longer, it gets there faster. More force.”
Simmons considers himself lucky to have McNamara in camp, especially with the kind of numbers he put up in college. And he will definitely get his chance to impress.
“He very well could have been drafted,” Simmons said. “We were fortunate enough to be able to land him,” Simmons says. “He just wants to come in compete. I think that’s what everyone wants.”
