Ja’Marr Again To Transferring; Jonah Williams’ New Strategy And His Outdated Fan Orlando; Younger Bengals Specialists Offering Kick

TEAMS COMPARISON: Sunday’s game features two top ten special teams units built with different philosophies. The Burrow Bengals have stitched it together with largely first and second-year players, such as rookie punter Brad Robbins, rookie personal protector Jordan Battle, rookie punt returner Charlie Jones, rookie gunner Andrei Iosivas and second-year long snapper Cal Adomitis. Although the two linchpins are vets, linebackers Akeem Davis-Gaither and Markus Bailey, Davis-Gaither just returned from a month-long knee injury. In his first year playing, safety Tycen Anderson was tied for the NFL lead in special teams tackles before suffering a season-ending ACL tear in the Oct. 29 win against the 49ers.

Meanwhile, the Texans with a quarterback on a rookie deal, have veterans such as nine-year linebacker Neville Hewitt and fifth-year cornerback Ka’dar Hollman who are in the NFL’s top 20 in special teams tackles, per PFF.

“They don’t give up anything,” said Simmons of a kick and punt defense that is both ranked third. “What they’re taking advantage of right now is they have not had a quarterback there in some time. And so they can pay the lower half of the roster higher than what the rest of the league can because they don’t have to pay the quarterback yet. They have a bunch of good veteran special teams players and they’re taking advantage of that.”

STATE OF TEAMS: Despite the loss of Anderson, Simmons is bullish on his young guys.

Robbins, he says, has bounced back from his nightmarish 10-punt opener in the rain and been solid. He particularly points to the last punt in San Francisco with 19 seconds left and a 14-point lead.

“It didn’t seem big to a lot of people, but it is to me, how we handled the situation at the end … We ran the play clock down. We called timeout. We talked about the rush. But then I told him, this punt has to be out of bounds,” Simmons said. “Because there’s going to come a time it’s a seven-point game, or it’s a three-point game with 20 seconds left where that ball’s got to be out of bounds. And he executed it perfectly, kicked it out of bounds.”

Translation: If the punt in the AFC title game with 30 seconds left had gone out of bounds, the Bengals could have been in the Super Bowl again. At the very least, overtime.

Simmons says one guy can’t replace Anderson because of his unique size and speed, but keep an eye on Battle. Battle, the third-round safety from Alabama, bowled over Simmons with his 18-minute interview at the NFL scouting combine that had Simmons drawing in his notes they had to have him. The only other guy he did that with this year is future Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.

“Jordan’s in a bit more of a position where he can affect the game better or, or more. He’s in critical spots. He’s playing the old spots that Mike Thomas played,” Simmons said of his old captain still around on the practice squad.

“He’s an inside player on kickoff. He’s not had to change with the injury to Tyson … He’s trying to handle a lot right now in addition he’s got a role on defense, too. So there’s a lot going on for him. And I think he’s managed it pretty well for the most part. He’s a smart kid that you can tell has played a lot of football in his career and some things come naturally to him. Some things take work, but he’s willing to put the work in and do it.”

SLANTS AND SCREENS: The Bengals could use a fellow Buckeye to get Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud out of the pocket, but left end Sam Hubbard (ankle) didn’t work for the second straight day …

You know that false start called on Orlando Brown that turned Evan McPherson’s 55-yard field goal into a punt on Sunday night? Simmons is still shaking his head.

“They had a player right in front of Orlando that simulated the snap count. He yelled out,’ set.’ You can see his head move and see him do it to Orlando,” Simmons said. “I mean, the official that called the penalty, there’s no chance he saw Orlando move. Zero. Okay. I can barely see him move on video. Just look at the (video).” …