Ryan Rehkow on Winning Cincinnati Bengals' Punting Job, His Relationship With Evan McPherson and More

Cincinnati Bengals On SI

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00:00Kind of as camp went on, I feel like I was able to get a little bit more comfortable

00:03and just trying to make the most of every opportunity.

00:06Did you have like an exit meeting in Kansas City or anything or did you just get a call

00:10or like any tips they gave you going forward coming out of that?

00:15No, I have nothing but respect for all the coaches at Kansas City, same with Matt.

00:19All the guys there were nothing but good to me.

00:23And just meeting with the coordinator kind of on the way out, they're like, hey, we feel

00:27like we have two NFL punters here in camp and we just have to make the tough decision

00:30with who we think will help play to our strengths.

00:35So it's definitely a little bit of a bitter pill to swallow, but at the same time, I feel

00:39like I walked out of there confident that like, no, I belong and I can really do some

00:44special things with this platform.

00:46Did Darren do any technique stuff with you when you came here or tinker with anything

00:50for consistency or have you just kind of just kind of just reps have helped you get more

00:54consistent?

00:55I think it's always interesting with punting because every punter is going to be a little

00:58bit different.

01:00I feel like with Darren, he's done a great job of just reiterating kind of the small

01:04things.

01:06It's never like wholesale changes, hey, you need to hold the ball a certain way or do

01:10this.

01:11It's just kind of those little reminders like, OK, keep the nose up a little bit or get it

01:15a little more over the foot.

01:17It's just been the small things that are just really good reminders kind of as you're walking

01:21out on the field, you just have a couple of things going through your head and you just

01:24focus on that.

01:25How much do you embrace the big moment in games?

01:30I feel like you don't, I try not to think about it too much in terms of like, hey, this

01:34is a really good situation, maybe we can help the team just because we don't have a lot

01:39of opportunities.

01:40So I feel like every single one for us, whether it's the first quarter or the fourth quarter,

01:45everyone feels like a big opportunity just because you don't know how many are going

01:48to come after that.

01:49After the fact, though, you can certainly appreciate like the fourth quarter time, how

01:53important it was to the team.

01:55For sure.

01:56Yeah, no, looking back at it, it's like, yeah, it was good.

01:58We put the team in a good situation.

02:01But again, I feel like a lot of that was our coverage.

02:04Gunners went down there, made a great play.

02:07It really is, I think that's the special part about special teams is if one person doesn't

02:12do their job, it can open up things for a lot of bad to come.

02:16Obviously, a big part of your job is also holding.

02:18You had two big holds the other day.

02:20How comfortable have you gotten with Evan over the past few months?

02:23Yeah, I think that's been one of the great things is Evan is just as calm and as even

02:28keeled as they come.

02:30And so when I first got here, we made a couple of tweaks and he was just really, really patient.

02:35Just like, I'm not going to get on you for something you don't really know.

02:39And then same with Cal.

02:40Cal has been money with the snaps.

02:42He's put me in really good situations.

02:43And so I feel like that gives me a lot of confidence just that I'm the middleman.

02:49I got the easy job out of the three.

02:51Just put it down and let Evan do his thing and trust that Cal is going to do exactly

02:54what he can.

02:55How much did Darren's funny snaps during practice where he just throws them wherever, how much

03:00did that help?

03:01Oh, I mean, we're constantly repping that and it's definitely, it makes the good snaps

03:05a lot easier.

03:07But yeah, you just try and put yourself in some tougher situations so that when it gets

03:12to game time, you feel like you've seen what you needed to see.

03:15Your first division game, have you gotten a sense of that, especially Darren and this

03:21thing with Baltimore?

03:22It seems to be a special team, always seems to be a special team Super Bowl.

03:26Yeah.

03:27Yeah, there hasn't been anything where it's like, man, this is a whole different ball

03:32game compared to what we've had.

03:35But again, I don't really know anything different.

03:37So every game seems like a big game.

03:39Let's just do the best that I can, trust that the situations we're put in, we're going

03:43to be able to go out and execute.

03:45When you hit a big one, does it surprise you a little bit or what's the feeling for you

03:50like when you see the ball sailing away and you're like, holy cow, I just hit a good one.

03:54What's that feeling?

03:55Does it get you hyped up?

03:56Oh yeah.

03:57No, that's like the best feeling in the world is just like, I want to go out and see how

04:00far I can hit it, see how high I can hit it.

04:03Obviously not everyone's going to be perfect and there's some, as soon as you hit it, you're

04:07like, yeah, that was a good one.

04:08I know it felt really clean, but ultimately it's like, everybody can have one good punt.

04:14For me, it's just, okay, how many good punts can I have and just trying to stack those.

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