Travis Dorsch takes snap as a punter Tuesday. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- The Bengals could keep three kickers this coming season: Neil Rackers, Travis Dorsch and Nick Harris.

        “If it is to our advantage, in the final analysis, to have three kickers on our roster, it would not be an unusual thing,” coach Dick LeBeau said Tuesday. “It's just a matter of how each team perceives its best final cast of characters.”

        Rackers was the team's kicker last season and he struggled with a 60.7 field goal percentage. Harris was the punter.

        Dorsch handled all of the kicking duties at Purdue, making 19 of 20 field goals inside 50 yards and leading the nation with a 48.8-yard regular-season punting average. The Bengals drafted him in the fourth round exclusively as a kicker, but that idea has appeared to expand.

        “We would be less than intelligent if we don't see what kind of punter he's going to be up here,” LeBeau said. “He has potential to be a tremendous punter.”

        Dorsch welcomes the challenge.

        “Coming into camp, they want to see me do it all and then see where I'm at,” he said. “We obviously have two quality guys in Nick and Neil here, and the more I can do makes me better, makes them better.”

        In the old days, NFL teams commonly had one player kick and punt.

        “People used to do it, just like pitchers used to throw 300 innings a season,” Dorsch said. “I think more than anything it's a mental separation, more than it is a physical wear and tear on your body.

        “Where it gets tough is in a game where on a given third down you might have to do one thing and the next third down the other. You have to be mentally ready to accept the challenge. I did it at Purdue and I'm not saying I'm going to come in here and do it, but if I were to set lofty goals, that would be one of them.”

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