Bengals roster news: Punter Will Monday waived

The Cincinnati Bengals are trimming their roster ahead of the fourth and final preseason game.

Following Sunday’s 23-17 loss at Washington, the Bengals waived backup punter Will Monday. He is now subject to waivers and can be claimed by any team.

Monday, a first-year player, had signed with the team as a free agent on Aug. 9. He played in the Bengals’ first two preseason games and had six punts for 46.3-yard average (42.2 net), no touchbacks and three punts inside the 20 yard line.

He also shanked a punt against the Kansas City Chiefs that went for 11 yards. However, he redeemed himself with punts of 59 and 48 yards in that same game, one of which was downed at the Kansas City 2-yard line.

Even so, it wasn’t enough for Monday to keep his job heading into the final preseason game. Monday was signed because Kevin Huber had been dealing with some leg soreness, but he returned to action on Sunday. We saw Huber nearly get decapitated during Sunday’s loss in Washington on a busted punt-blocking assignment, but Huber was able to recover and get taken down gracefully.

Ideally, the Bengals won’t put Huer in those situations Thursday in a meaningless preseason game, but it looks like they were ready to move on from Monday and let Huber take all of the remaining reps moving forward.