Punter Tory Taylor Remains A Work In Progress For The Bears

Tory Taylor was drafted to be a weapon for the rebuilding Bears but so far has been just another NFL punter. This is not so much a knock as a statement about the skills of the best punters.

Chicago selected the former University of Iowa record-setter in the fourth round of the 2024 draft, with the 122nd pick overall. Only four other punters had been selected in the first four rounds since 2010.

Taylor was often described as a “generational punter” in his four seasons at Iowa. Bears GM Ryan Poles gushed about him entering his second season.

“Really excited about Tory,” Poles said during training camp. “(He’s) one of the best punters I’ve ever seen, just in terms of his placement as well as his leg strength to be able to flip the field.”

Outside analysts weren’t necessarily as sold on him, however. Pro Football Focus ranked Taylor as the NFL’s 21st best punter in his rookie season.

Inconsistent hang times and a tendency to out-kick his coverage have limited his impact through the first 18 games of his NFL career.

Taylor set an NCAA record with 4479 total yards in 2023, averaging 48.2 yards per punt. He averaged 47.7 yards for Chicago in his rookie season but that ranked only 15th. Detroit’s Jack Fox led the league with 51.0 yards per punt.

Taylor’s net yards averaged 41.6, which ranked 20th. Opponents compiled 422 return yards off Chicago punts, the third most in the league in weighted returns. He was 19th in pinning teams inside the 20-yard-line.

Caleb Williams once joked that Taylor would have a lot of idle time but that has hardly proved the case. He had more punting yards as a rookie than Williams did passing yards, as his 82 total punts ranked second to Cleveland’s Corey Bojorquez.

Taylor has had his moments. He was named the NFL’s Special Teams Player of the Week after a Game 2 victory over the Rams last season, becoming the first Chicago punter to win a weekly award since Brad Maynard in 2007.

Taylor’s punts produced 23 fair catches last season, which ranked sixth in the league. He forced opponents to start drives inside the 20 34 times, the fifth most in the league.

Taylor, a native of Melbourne, Australia, developed the full bag of tricks en route to the NFL. He varied his technique at Iowa, using one-step, two-step and rugby styles.

In addition to the height and placement of punts, he has mastered a variety of different spins to challenge punt returners. But while his skills are evident, they have not translated into the type of advantage that was envisioned when the Bears prioritized his addition ahead of Bucky Irving and others still on the board in an overall thin draft class.

Taylor was called on for six punts in the season-opening loss to Minnesota on Monday night. The best of them left the Vikings starting from their 19 yard-line in the first quarter but one nearly turned into a calamity when it was tipped by Eric Wilson.

That one traveled only 25 yards, which reduced Taylor’s average to 44.3 yards. The alarming part was Minnesota’s Myles Price returned four of the punts, covering distances of 9, 20, 17 and 22 yards.

Wilson broke through the left side of the line to get his hand on the last of Taylor’s six punts. It wasn’t a true block but allowed the Vikings to start a drive at their 32 rather than inside the 20. They capitalized with a nine-play, 68-yard drive, taking the lead.

PFF gave Taylor a grade of 62.2, which ranked 11th for the week. He’ll get a chance to improve on that in pristine conditions on Sunday, when the Bears play at Ford Field, Detroit’s indoor stadium.

Fox and Jacksonville’s Logan Cole were the first and second team All-Pro punters last season. Cole and Dallas’ Bryan Anger earned that recognition in 2023.

Taylor, blessed with an unusual amount of job security for a specialist, may eventually reach those heights. But like almost everyone else at Halas Hall, his performance to date leaves room for improvement.

As the 2025 season officially becomes the focus for Taylor, he has a tall task of living up to his 2024 season. The good news is that head coach Ben Johnson opted to retain special teams coordinator Richard Hightower so there is continuity for Taylor in the context of building momentum to develop into one of the game’s best punters.

While he did flip the field, two other numbers tell the real story of how good Taylor really was last season. 41.5%, exactly 34 of his 82 punts were downed inside opponents’ 20-yard line, with his longest punt being 68 yards last season.

The production shows a player that really ended up being a massive difference maker in a season that never really had any significant bright moments.

Against NFC North opponents, a total of six games, Taylor also had just one touchback. While this is a number that shouldn’t be held against him, the Bears did end up losing in close games to divisional opponents so it is fair to wonder if at least one or two touchbacks per game could’ve changed momentum for the entire team.

As he heads into his second season, focusing more on getting some touchbacks, especially against NFC North teams could end up being the real reason that he sees some growth and goes from being a fourth-round pick to turning into one of the best punters in the league.

Working on different techniques to challenge punt returners