Throughout the summer leading up to the regular season, we will go through the entire 2024 Cincinnati Bengals roster. Every single day until the season opener against the New England Patriots , we will break down a player on the roster including his background, contract status, and path towards making the team.
Today, we focus in on punter Brad Robbins. The Bengals turned to a rookie Robbins last year in an attempt at landing a long-term replacement for former punter Kevin Huber. Robbins, in turn, struggled mightily to the point where Cincinnati is giving him a real challenge to stay on the roster entering his second season.
Brad Robbins
- Age: 25
- Year: 2nd
- Position: Punter
- College: Michigan
- Previous Teams: None
- Jersey Number: 10
Robbins was drafted by the Bengals with the 217th overall pick in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. The Bengals acquired the pick from trading back with the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round.
Robbins spent six years and played five seasons at Michigan, appearing in 45 games. For his career, he punted 179 times for 7698 yards, which gives him the program's second-highest yards per attempt (43.0). His best season came in 2021 when he finished fifth in the FBS in net average at 44.3. He was an All-Big Ten honorable mention for the third time in his career and a first-time semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award, given annually to the nation's best punter.
Such an impressive resume at a big-time program made Robbins a draftable punter in 2023, and the Bengals made him the second of three to come off the board late on Day 3. In his first preseason, Robbins punted eight times for an average of 46.4 yards per attempt (42.6 net average) and an average hang time of 4.38 seconds. Those numbers helped him beat out former Big Ten foe Drue Chrisman in the battle for the position on the 53-man roster.
The regular season version of Robbins was unexpectedly worse. His total and net average each dropped to 44.3 and 40.3, respectively, and his average hang time decreased to 4.24. All figures ranked in the bottom eight out of 33 starting punters last year. He consistently struggled to flip the field and had trouble keeping his punts in bounds when needed, doing no favors for a Cincinnati defense that had its own problems.
Contract details
Robbins signed a four-year, $3,973,332 deal with the Bengals last year in April that will pay him the minimum salary for a player with his level of experience for the 2024 season.
His salary will cost $915,00 for the entire season if he's kept on the team for the entire regular season, but with a $133,332 signing bonus prorated throughout the deal, his cap hit for this season will be $948,333.
Roster chances
Was 2023 a fluke, or a sign of what's to come for Robbins going forward? It was shocking how underwhelming he performed as a rookie after leading a high-quality career at a major college program. And it's not as if the cold was an issue. Robbins was born just north of Columbus and played half-a-decade even further north. His experience should've made him ideal for punting freezer balls in the AFC North.
The NFL just seemed like too big of a leap for him, and the Bengals can't afford to wait for him to work through his issues.
Challenging Robbins this year is Austin McNamara, a rookie college free agent out of Texas Tech who had a good case of being drafted in the first place . McNamara's career average of 45.9 yards per punt is not only the highest in Texas Tech history, it's the highest in the history of the Big 12 Conference. His 48.2 average from 2021 is also the school and conference single-season record.
McNamara's a strong candidate to boot Robbins off the team, but Robbins is the perfect example of why some specialists don't play nearly as good in the pros as they did in college. It's silly to favor one over the other before pigskin meets foot, but if one is under more pressure than the other, it's definitely Robbins.
Chances of making the roster: 50%
Previous player breakdowns
Related: Bengals Roster Breakdown: Austin McNamara can become Cincinnati's long-term answer at punter
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