Tory Taylor Was Crushing it on Day 2 of Mandatory Minicamp (2024)

We’ll have a fuller roundup of mandatory minicamp shenanigans later in the afternoon. But before we get to those, we clearly need to discuss Chicago Bears punter Tory Taylor, who apparently stole the show during Wednesday’s practice.

Herb Howard (The Bigs) co-signed Adam Hoge’s tweet with a breakdown of Tory Taylor’s performance:

He put on an absolute clinic. Had 4 punts downed inside the 5, including one he bounced out at the 1yd line and another that was caught in the air by the coverage team at the 1yd line. He had an additional 3 punts downed inside the 10. And it was a windy day at Halas. The kid is a weapon!

Holy smokes! Tory Taylor had a day at Bears camp. Four punts downed inside the 5-yard-line is bonkers. Bouncing another out at the 1-yard-line feels like the special teams equivalent of splurging by putting extra creamy frosting on the cake. But there were also three other punts that were downed inside-the-10 and another punt caught at the 1-yard-line by the Bears’ coverage unit. I’m no mathemagician, but some back-of-the-envelope calculations brings that out to that comes out to a nine punts that landed inside the 10 today. Sure, it’s just practice. But still … hot dog, what a practice!

Tory Taylor could be one of the Chicago Bears most valuable players as a rookie in 2024

Check out Tory Taylor’s list of accolades:

This feels like a good place to drop some punter highlights from Tory Taylor’s time at Iowa:

Drafting a punter in the fourth round wasn’t a popular decision in some circles. And I understand (even if I don’t necessarily agree). The Bears could have potentially gotten better value by snagging a player at a different position. But by drafting Tory Taylor, they got the best darn punter in the draft. And by the end of the year, Taylor very well could be the NFL’s best punter (if not, one of the best). Again, it’s not as if they drafted some run-of-the-mill replacement-level punter. By all accounts, the Bears drafted the best punting prospect hit draft boards in some time. That has to be taken into consideration when discussing player value, right?

All things considered, I thought the Bears did well in drafting Tory Taylor when they did. The University of Iowa product could be a game-changer if his punts translate to the next level. Taylor could frustrate opposing offenses by pinning them deep in their own territory, which could position the defense to wreak havoc thanks to the field-flipping punter. From there, the Bears offense could be the biggest beneficiary from Taylor’s punting prowess. I imagine life would be easier for rookie quarterback Caleb Williams if Tory Taylor’s punts help put the Bears offense in an advantageous position.

If all else fails, at least Chicago’s football team should be in a position to cash in on the field position turn with field goal attempts. This is where the luxury of having Cairo Santos — who has made 91.1 percent of his field goals since the start of the 2020 and connected on 11 of 13 kicks from 50+ yards over the last two years —truly pays off.

And just like that, we’re discussing Tory Taylor through the lens of a player whose presence helps the defense establish itself, aids the offense in its scoring efforts, and helps fellow special teamers get theirs. This isn’t something the Bears could do with Trenton Gill, who was waived earlier in the offseason after a woeful second season in Chicago.

To be clear, I don’t want to see Tory Taylor punt at all in 2024. Ideally, Taylor and his leg will be well rested while Caleb Williams, Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, D’Andre Swift, Cole Kmet, and everyone else on the Chicago Bears offense puts up touchdowns. But on the off chance that the offense needs a breather from scoring all those points, it’ll be nice to turn to Taylor for an occasional punt.

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Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.