Through three days of practices, the offense leads 3-1. McPherson and new long snapper Will Wagner are both on offense, while punter Ryan Rekhow and returning long snapper Cal Adomitis are on the defense.
“I think it’s more fun than anything,” McPherson said. “I expressed to Darrin (Simmons), like, we have a group of NFL guys that get together once a year in Gatlinburg (for a kicking competition), and I was like, I can’t seem to figure out why I kicked so well there, and why I can’t translate it to like when I’m kicking by myself, but I think it’s just the adrenaline that you get just being around the guys and competing and just having fun. And it’s funny, you feel like you might get nervous whenever everybody huddles around and starts hooting and hollering, but I feel like it gives you an extra boost of adrenaline. And I don’t know, I just felt pretty calm in the moment, pretty excited, and just did what I would do if nobody was around.”
Simmons, the team’s long-time special teams coordinator, shared Monday during the media luncheon that he was trying to find ways to ramp up the pressure in practices for McPherson without having any competition behind him for the kicker job. Putting something on the line when he’s kicking, in this case a point for the offense, is one way to do that.
McPherson struggled last season before tearing his right groin during a Week 13 game against Pittsburgh, and the Bengals are trying to get him back to the clutch performer he was his first two seasons. He was consistent in 2023 from 49 yards and in but wasn’t hitting the long-range shots that made him so valuable.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
During his rookie year in 2021, McPherson went 9-of-11 from 50 yards and beyond, and he made three game-winning field goals during the regular season, including one in overtime, and then added two more in the playoffs to help the team to the Super Bowl.
“The past three years, I’ve kind of, after my rookie year, I went on a deep dive to figure out how I could become more consistent, and it sent me the other way,” McPherson said. “And so this past offseason, I kind of went back to what I grew up doing from the time I started kicking into college, pre-draft, and everything I’ve done leading up to my rookie season. I kind of resorted back to that, and I feel more comfortable in my technique now, and now I can really just focus on the kick and not really focus on my steps and kind of all these other things I was putting on myself.”
McPherson grew up as more of a “draw” kicker, meaning he had more right-to-left movement on the ball created by angling his body toward the holder, but in his third season, he felt like he needed to straighten out his kicks more and started hitting it with his body aligned to the target. McPherson learned that squaring toward the target took away some of his power, which he could obtain better through a more natural swing for himself coming from the side.
Simmons also wanted McPherson to work on his strength and conditioning this offseason, so that has been a focus as well. McPherson said he felt like he was warming up enough last year but needed to prolong his routine to avoid injury and also do more recovery work after games and practices to maintain his health.
Now he’s doing more stretching and cold/hot tubs and taking care of his body more than maybe he needed to when he was younger, now going into Year 5. After tweaking the ankle in his plant foot in Organized Team Activities, strengthening that is another point of emphasis.
Simmons said he can help McPherson by trying to make a decision on the long snapper competition as soon as possible to solidify the operations of the kicking unit. Rekhow has a lock on the punter and holder job now, but Wagner was brought in to compete with Adomitis.
“I just want to get something that’s solidified and, stationary, you know, so they can all grow together and get locked in together, and there’s gonna be competition for that, especially for the snapper spot,” Simmons said. “… I don’t want to get too in depth or overthink it too much for him (McPherson). He’s better when he kicks based on feel, and I’ve seen him do it before so I don’t want to overcomplicate things too much in his mind, but we gotta get this thing, the operation around him solidified.”
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