While Week 1 didn’t go at all how the Cincinnati Bengals wanted it to, their poor offensive performance did allow one newcomer to show off.
Rookie punter Ryan Rehkow set a record in his NFL debut with an average of 64.5 yards per punt in the loss to the New England Patriots, beating the previous record of 63.6 yards that was set in November of last season by Las Vegas Raiders punter A.J. Cole. Rehkow punted four times for 258 yards.
Rehkow signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of BYU and soon after signed with the Bengals where he would win the starting job. On his very first try in the league when Cincinnati’s second drive came to a stall, he booted the football from where he was standing on his own 5-yard line and bounced it into the opposite end zone, an 80-yard punt that stands as a new franchise record.
Rehkow came into the season still in a battle with second-year punter Brad Robbins, who the Bengals spent a 2023 sixth-round draft pick on, but he injured his hip in training camp and remains on the IR.
With his record-setting Week 1 performance, Rehkow might have ended the battle for the starting punter job when Robbins is able to return.
The Bengals certainly hope he doesn’t need to punt as much as he had to in the first week of the season, but if he continues anywhere near the performance he started his career with, Cincinnati might have found its new punter.
