The Cincinnati Bengals finally drafted a punter, using an extra sixth-round pick acquired via trade with the Kansas City Chiefs to select Michigan’s Brad Robbins.
Robbins, a native of Westerville, Ohio, had an average hangtime of 4.29 seconds over his last two years with less than 20 percent of those attempts actually getting returned.
That’s a stark contrast to Drue Chrisman, whose biggest problem last season — and especially in the AFC title game, as fans might recall — was getting hangtime on his punts.
Still, there’s a give-and-take thing going on with Robbins as he gets ready to fight for a roster spot, as noted by NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein:
Finesse punter who will be much better at pinning opponents near their own end zone than bailing his team out with power. He punts with much better hang-time than we are used to seeing from college punters and landed nearly half of his punts inside the 20-yard line in 2022.
#Bengals fans: here’s what we had to say about Brad Robbins pic.twitter.com/4U97bDpW7o
— Puntalytics (@ThePuntRunts) April 29, 2023
This was a fantastic value for the Bengals given that this was an extra pick obtained by moving down only a handful of spots in the third round.
It was super predictable, but the team gets bonus points for setting up an Ohio State vs. Michigan punter battle.
Given Robbins’ strengths, he’s got a very real shot at being the punter in Week 1, which is a great value for the final pick of the sixth round.
