Cincinnati Bengals Zero-Snap Spotlight: Jake Kumerow

By Kenn Korb | Jul 11, 2017

(Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

Continuing to analyze the Cincinnati Bengals roster with the Zero-Snap Spotlight series, looking at wide receiver Jake Kumerow.

We continue with the Zero-Snap Spotlight series which has six entries already. This series is a deep dive into the Cincinnati Bengals roster, taking a look at the lesser-known players — specifically, those who have yet to play a snap in the NFL despite having been in the league for varying amounts of time. We’ve already looked at the following: Andrew Billings, Marcus Hardison, David Dean, Ryan Brown, Tra Carson and Alonzo Russell.

To continue this series, I look at wide receiver Jake Kumerow.

Kumerow has taken an interesting path to get to this point in his career. He started college as a walk-on at Illinois in 2011, doing little in his time there (3 catches, 15 yards). A transfer to UW-Whitewater didn’t immediately change his fortunes much, but a larger role in his final two years there allowed him to show off the skills which could make him worth a flier on a roster. 143 catches, 2,447 yards, and 33 touchdowns in 26 games will do that, even coming from a DIII school.

His effective use of his 6-5 frame for catches (especially in the red zone) and attention to detail on routes weren’t enough to overcome his issues against press coverage and the stigma of facing lower-level competition when it came to being drafted. But his positives were enough to push Cincinnati to take the aforementioned flier on him after the 2015 draft.

More from Cincinnati Bengals

That chance taken on Kumerow has allowed him to stick around Cincinnati and fight for a roster spot for two-straight years, but hasn’t amounted to much more than that. Two seasons into his career, he still hasn’t garnered any professional snaps.

With Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu still around, 2015 was a major long shot for his hopes, but 2016 should have been his chance. Unfortunately, injury issues kept him from making an impact leading up to the season, and what would probably be his best shot to find a substantial role was cut short before it ever started.

Last season, Kumerow had a much clearer path to the roster. A.J. Green, Brandon LaFell, and Tyler Boyd were going to have the major roles, but the No. 4-6 spots were wide-open. Tyler Eifert also missed a large portion of the season, and having someone of Kumerow’s size could have immensely helped in the red zone.

This year, his path appears all but closed. Green returns healthy after missing the end of the season, Eifert appears set to start the year healthy, and the additions of John Ross and Josh Malone stack the receiving corps with five locks automatically. Unless Cincinnati is going to keep seven wideouts this time around (something slowly becoming more common, but ultimately still pretty rare in the league), there’s only one spot left to discern.

Possibly working in Kumerow’s favor is those two years he’s already spent with the team, learning their plays and formations. It could also work against him. However, the fact that he hasn’t been able to break through for a single snap in that time can’t bode well, and the newer options may be able to add dynamics to the roster which aren’t already provided by those higher in the hierarchy.

Kumerow’s height and red zone strengths are surpassed by those of Green, Eifert, and Malone. Even if Cincinnati wants another player like that, they could choose to go with Alonzo Russell instead.

None of Karel Hamilton, Monty Madaris, Alex Erickson, Chris Brown, or Cody Core offer Kumerow’s height, but they can bring elements of speed and/or technicality that he doesn’t quite reach. Core and Erickson already have game snaps under their belt. Madaris and Hamilton bring more unknown possibilities to the fold — the same thing which once gave Kumerow a shot.

Next: NFL 2017: Each team's biggest question before training camp

The odds are stacked against him for sure, and without injuries to his competition I wouldn’t expect him to even make the final round of cuts at this point. We’ve often seen longer odds overcome for roster spots, however, so I won’t quite count on his long, interesting path ending just yet.

Home/Cincinnati Bengals