4 Bengals rookies who could make an immediate impact

Austin McNamara - Punter, Texas Tech

Once again, the Bengals came into the offseason needing to fix the situation at punter. Two years ago, it was Kevin Huber aging and being replaced by former Buckeye Drue Chrisman. Then, when Chrisman struggled to keep the ball in the air long enough to allow the special teams to get downfield and prevent the returner from making a play, they selected Michigan punter Brad Robbins with the 217th overall pick.

Robbins, unfortunately, didn't prove to be much of a step up from Chrisman. So, once again, the front office entered the offseason with fans clamoring for them to address the punter position, whether that be through the draft or free agency. Tory Taylor was a prospect that intrigued a lot of people, however, the Bears beat all interested parties to the punch by drafting the Iowa product in the 4th round.

So, instead, the Bengals opted to sign one of the many undrafted players at the position, settling on Austin McNamara from Texas Tech. While he is obviously no Tory Taylor, McNamara did have a solid collegiate career and finished his senior year averaging 46.3 yards per punt, good for 11th in the FBS, and 24 punts landing inside the opponents' 20, which is four more than Brad Robbins on 21 more attempts.

Even if he doesn't end up being an improvement from Robbins and fails to take the punting job over the course of the summer, McNamara, at the very least, will provide some competition at the position and hopefully cause Robbins to step his own game up to secure his position.