Cincinnati Bengals: Early 53-man roster predictions 2018, special teams

After making predictions about the offense and defense of the Cincinnati Bengals’ 53-man roster for 2018, we now look at the special teams.

Who doesn’t love the kickers and punters? Throughout predicting which players will make the Cincinnati Bengals’ final roster for the 2018 regular season, we’ve looked at both the offense and defense. But that leaves one last group to look at.

With the rosters as full as they can be, now is a great time for an early look at who the team may decide is worthy of those coveted 53 available spots once the regular season kicks off. We have already seen the quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, offensive linemen, and defensive linemen, linebackers, and defensive backs.

We finish the exercise with the special teamers.

Special Teamers

* = starters; + = make roster

*Randy Bullock
*Kevin Huber
*Clark Harris
Jonathan Brown

This is, of course, a mostly straight-forward exercise. Outside of one position here, the answers are all but automatically decided here. Harris is better known for his luscious hair and setting the Guinness World Record for longest snap at the most recent Pro Bowl (36.5 yards) than his work as a long snapper, but he’s pretty good at his main job, too. Last year, he had no errors on his 143 special teams ball snaps, and that falls in line with his usual MO of being a reliable long snapper.

Huber isn’t quite as well-regarded, but nonetheless he’s got no challenger for the position he’s held since Cincinnati drafted him in 2009. He hasn’t really had a strong leg to work with, but it has improved a lot since his early career (no better than No. 14 in average punt distance his first five seasons; 10th or better in three of the past four). His placement ability is what makes him a quality punter though: he’s been 12th or better five of his nine seasons, and barely missed making it a sixth time last season (No. 13). With those two areas both being strengths more often than not in recent years, Huber seems poised to stay among the better punters out there in the coming years.

The only place where there may be any kind of challenge is at kicker, but really that seems to be a foregone conclusion. Bullock was already chosen over Brown last year (not to mention Jake Elliott), and he did nothing to make it seem like he would lose the competition this time around, either.

While the team almost certainly wish they stuck through Elliott’s preseason struggles last offseason (his leg went on to win Philadelphia some games on the way to their Super Bowl victory, and he should be good for the next decade), Bullock showed that while his long-term prospects aren’t as exciting he can be a perfectly fine option in his own right. Cincinnati’s moribund offense didn’t give him many chances to score, but he made 18 of his 20 attempts in 2017. The issues of 2016 — where Mike Nugent botched a handful of field goals AND extra points, costing Cincinnati at least a couple games in the process — were placed firmly in the rear view mirror.

Next: NFL 2018: Ranking all 32 starting RBs

Could Brown fight his way into Bullock’s assumed spot? If Bullock starts missing kicks at an alarming rate in training camp at the preseason, the door will swing wide open in the exact way it did for Bullock in the first place. His background in soccer, and strong leg, and an impressive kicking workout video made him worth a shot back when he was first brought into the team a couple years ago; if Bullock falters (not impossible: missing 14 field goals in his first two seasons helped turn him into the journeyman that Cincinnati picked up in the first place), Brown will have a chance. Still, until Bullock missteps, expect him to handily hold onto his roster spot again.