Tory Taylor's Punt-and-Pins Earn NFC Special Teams Award

Tory Taylor put three punts down inside the 10 against the Rams and was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.

Tory Taylor punts against the Houston Texans earlier this season. Taylor is NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Bears punter Tory Taylor responded to a poor week against the Indianapolis Colts with one of the best days of punting in team history.

As a result, Taylor was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 4.

Taylor became the first Bears winner of the award for special teams since Cairo Santos in Week 7 of the 2022 season.

The former Iowa Hawkeye had three punts downed inside the 9-yard line and two at the 8 on back-to-back efforts in the fourth quarter. He had punts of 51, 64, 61, 66 and 35 yards as he became the first Bears rookie special teams player of the week since Johnny Knox in 2009.

His 55.4-yard average marked the third-highest single-game effort by Bears punter since at least 1960.

Taylor ranks in the top five in the league at putting punts down inside the 20 with nine, the most by a Bears punter since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. He has the most by all NFL rookies through their first four weeks.

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