ESPN's Bill Barnwell thinks the Bengals punting unit is the team's biggest hang-up for a return trip to the Super Bowl.
Barnwell posted a piece highlighting one weakness for the top-10 Super Bowl contenders and punting was where he landed with Cincinnati, despite the improvements under Drue Chrisman.
"Punting? Yes, there are reasons to be concerned about what Cincinnati has done when booting away the ball," Barnwell wrote. "The Bengals have been below average on special teams this season, but they've particularly struggled with punting, where they've fielded the NFL's fourth-worst unit. Kevin Huber has been the league's second-worst punter in the league by the measures at Puntalytics, with Cincinnati gaining just 37.4 net yards per punt.
"The Bengals added rookie Drue Chrisman to the roster and have had Huber inactive the past couple of weeks, but it's unlikely they would be carrying Huber on the roster if they weren't planning on going back to him at some point. Chrisman is untested in the postseason, and he also lost out to Huber when the two battled for the job in training camp."
Barnwell posted the article on Thursday without that second paragraph on the initial posting.
Chrisman is the main guy now and it's quite the assumption saying Cincinnati wouldn't be "carrying Huber on the roster if they weren't planning on going back to him at some point."
Bengals fans know all too well how slowly this team is making moves.
They don't pull triggers until they have to, and at this point, they don't have to make that call until next week.
Chrisman is still on the practice squad and can get called up one more time before he has to take a roster spot next week. At that point, Cincinnati can cut Huber and bring him back to the practice squad.
Huber should get the spot for his years of service and can be a valuable resource for Chrisman if Cincinnati makes the playoffs.
Barnwell laid out why it makes no sense to go back to Huber's old leg.
Meanwhile, Chrisman is averaging 52.6 yards per punt over the last two games (second in NFL over the full season), with four of his eight punts getting downed inside the opposing 20-yard line.
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