Coaches

Darrin Simmons is in his 10th season as Bengals special teams coach. Last season his units played a key role in Cincinnati securing a playoff berth, posting top 10 NFL finishes in three of the four major kick return and kick coverage areas. The Bengals were third in kickoff coverage, allowing only 20.8 yards per return, seventh in punt coverage (7.2 yards) and seventh in punt returns (11.5).

Also last season, the Bengals led the NFL in opponents starting field position after kickoffs (20.3-yard line).

Cincinnati’s individual special teams leaders had excellent production under Simmons last season:

» K Mike Nugent returned from a 2010 knee injury and set franchise records for points (132) and field goals (33). He put 67 of his 80 kickoffs into the end zone, 36 of those going for touchbacks. “I’ve become a better kicker working with Darrin,” says Nugent, who joined the Bengals in ’10 after five seasons with other clubs. “I’ve been open to some ideas, and Darrin led me to change how I position the ball for field goals and PATs. It gave me more consistency.”

» Brandon Tate joined the Bengals just a week before the 2011 season opener, on waivers from New England, and he contributed immediately. He finished the season with a 10.6 average on punt returns, with a TD, and he is now officially the franchise’s career leader in punt return average, as his club record of 51 returns meets the minimum requirement of 50. Tate also averaged 23.8 yards on 42 kickoff returns.

» P Kevin Huber averaged a career-best 44.2 yards per kick and now ranks second in franchise history in career average (43.3). Huber and the punt team have worked together over the last three seasons to produce 76 punts downed inside the opponent 20 and only 25 touchbacks.

In 2010, Cincinnati led the NFL in punt coverage for the season’s final five weeks and finished with an average yield of only 4.8 yards on 26 opponent returns. No foe had a return of longer than 20 yards.

Simmons’s Bengals special teams have shown a nose for the ball, forcing 23 fumbles in his nine completed seasons. That’s well over twice the total (nine) for the nine seasons prior to his tenure.

Simmons entered the NFL in the 1998 season on the same Baltimore Ravens staff as Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, who was Ravens defensive coordinator at the time. Simmons was assistant special teams coach and assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Ravens, and he held that same role for the Carolina Panthers from 1999-2002. He joined the Bengals in 2003.

A former college punter himself, Simmons played an integral role at Carolina in the development of Todd Sauerbrun as one of the NFL’s top punters of the time.

Simmons began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Kansas University in 1996. He moved to the University of Minnesota in 1997.

Simmons punted in college for Kansas from 1993-95, earning All-Big Eight honors his final year. As a senior, he helped the Jayhawks to a top 10 national ranking and to an Aloha Bowl victory over UCLA. Also as a Kansas senior, he won honors as an academic All-American.

Prior to playing for Kansas, Simmons was a punter and QB for Dodge City (Kan.) Community College. In 1992 at Dodge City, he led the nation’s junior colleges in punting and was a first-team JUCO All-American.

Simmons earned a degree in sports management from Kansas in 1996.

Born April 9, 1973, in Elkhart, Kan., he graduated from Elkhart High School. He and his wife, Rhonda, have a daughter and two sons.

PLAYING AND COACHING HISTORY 1991-92: Played quarterback and punter at Dodge City (Kan.) Community College. 1993-95: Punter, University of Kansas. 1996: Graduate assistant coach, Kansas. 1997: Assistant coach (AC), University of Minnesota. 1998: AC, Baltimore Ravens. 1999-2002: AC, Carolina Panthers. 2003-present: AC, Bengals.