Former BYU punter Ryan Rehkow had an unforgettable NFL debut, even if his team, the Cincinnati Bengals, lost 16-10 to the New England Patriots last Sunday.

The Washington native put himself not only in the Bengals’ record books with his Week 1 performance, but he also broke an NFL record.

The outing got Rehkow a shoutout from a former Bengal and BYU special teamer revered at both places — Lee Johnson.

What records did Ryan Rehkow break in his first NFL game?

Rehkow set these records in his NFL regular-season debut:

• His 80-yard punt late in the first quarter set the Bengals franchise record for the longest punt in team history, breaking a 19-year-old mark.
• His gross average of 64.5 yards per punt on four punts set the Cincinnati record.
• His gross average yards per punt also set the NFL mark for a single game, edging out the Raiders’ AJ Cole, who had set the record last season with a 63.6 average.

What did Lee Johnson say about Ryan Rehkow’s record-setting day?

Johnson, who played for Cincinnati from 1988-98 as part of an 18-yard career as an NFL punter, reached out to congratulate Rehkow, an undrafted rookie, on his debut.

“After one game, he destroyed everything that LJ stands for,” Johnson joked, according to the team website. “I told him, ‘You couldn’t wait for one game? You didn’t have to do it all in your first game.’”

Rehkow’s net average of 52.0 yards per punt — which accounts for returns and touchbacks, of which there were two in the game — is second best in a single game in Cincinnati history. It trails only Kevin Huber’s club-record 55.3 net average in a single game.

He bested Johnson for runner-up status: Johnson had a 51.3 net average in a game in 1994.

Rehkow originally signed with the Kansas City Chiefs before being cut there, and later this summer, he ended up in Cincinnati and won the starting job with the Bengals.

Johnson couldn’t believe another BYU alum, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, would cut Rehkow.

“What people didn’t realize about Rehkow is the balls that were used in college here at BYU are the worst balls for punters. They’re really tight quarterback-friendly footballs,” Johnson said, per the Bengals website. “I told him … ‘When you get an NFL ball, you’re coming to salivate.’ He’s got the leg to be as good as anyone. You saw it.”

Rehkow and the Bengals will play at Kansas City on Sunday — giving the rookie the chance to face the team that cut him this summer.

After his debut, Rehkow spoke of his first-game experience, while expressing the desire to keep improving in order to increase the chances of winning the next time around.

“I think that’s kind of our job. We’re here if you need us, we’re here if you don’t. I definitely wish we could have one or two less touchbacks — that would have set us up even better,” Rehkow said, per the team’s website. “It was a good way to start, but again, (we all) just want the team to be better. We want the team to win and if we (specialists) can help in that way, of course we’re going to try and do that.”