IOWA CITY — When the Chicago Bears drafted former Iowa punter Tory Taylor in the fourth round of the NFL Draft, his new quarterback was quick to welcome him.
"Caleb (Williams) just texted me before saying, ‘Hey, you’re not going to punt too much here,’“ Taylor said with a laugh on Saturday shortly after being drafted. ”That was pretty funny.“
Regardless of whether Williams — the former USC star quarterback the Bears took with the No. 1 overall pick — is right, Chicago’s fourth-round selection of Taylor is a reflection of how much the Bears value the Hawkeye star’s field-fipping ability.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles said Taylor — the NCAA record-holder in single-season yards per punt and career yards per punt — is “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.”
When the Bears called Taylor to tell him they were drafting him, head coach Matt Eberflus told him he is “going to be a great weapon for us.”
He echoed that sentiment when later talking to Chicago reporters, saying Taylor is “a weapon for the whole football team.”
Taylor averaged 48.2 yards per punt as a senior at Iowa. The NFL regular-season average for punters last year was 47.4 yards per attempt, and the Bears specifically averaged 46.1 yards per punt.
Taylor had 32 punts inside the 20-yard line versus seven touchbacks, which equates to a 4.57-to-1 ratio. The Bears’ Trenton Gill, on the other hand, had 18 punts inside the 20-yard line versus eight touchbacks for a less impressive 2.25-to-1 ratio.
The Bears are betting on those differences adding up over the course of a four-quarter game and 17-game season.
The Jets had the most punt attempts last year with 5.8 per game. About half of the league averaged four or more punts per game. All but one NFL team averaged three or more punts per game.
“Those things count,” Eberflus told reporters. “You can flip the field on those.”
Chicago paid a price that was befitting of a “weapon for the whole football team” to acquire Taylor. The 2023 Ray Guy Award winner was the No. 122 overall pick in the fourth round — two rounds before any other specialist was drafted.
Taylor became the highest-drafted punter since 2019 and the second-highest-drafted punter since 2012. He also was the highest-draft Hawkeye punter in program history and the highest-drafted Big Ten punter since 2004.
The mid-to-late fourth-round pick the Bears expended on Taylor was especially valuable considering they only had four picks in this year’s draft at the time (and finished the day with five selections after giving up a future pick to get into the fifth round).
“I was always pretty confident that I was going to get drafted,” Taylor said. “It was really just a matter of how high and things like that.”
The Australian punter made a joke to his girlfriend, who grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago, when the Cincinnati Bengals were on the clock with the No. 115 overall pick.
“Oh, only seven picks away,” Taylor said to his girlfriend, knowing the Bears were at No. 122.
Then, it actually happened. It was not necessarily a huge surprise, though.
Taylor talked with Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower at the NFL Combine, and Taylor believes they “really clicked” in Indianapolis.
Hightower also coached Mitch Wishnowsky — the only punter in the last decade to be drafted higher than Taylor — in San Francisco. Taylor and Wishnowsky have worked with the coaches at Prokick Australia, and Taylor believes he’s “a similar kind of player.”
The Bears’ front office also has seen how much Taylor can impact the game with his punting firsthand. The team had sent scouts to several Iowa games in recent years, including Iowa’s 2023 games against Utah State, Iowa State, Penn State and Northwestern.
That last one was in Chicago at Wrigley Field. Soon, Taylor will be playing a little farther south along the CTA Red Line at Soldier Field while wearing blue and orange instead of black and gold.
"I’m just really excited to be a Bear and just get to work,“ Taylor said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s pretty surreal.”
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
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