Getty Head coach Matt Eberflus of the Chicago Bears.
Punter Trenton Gill’s job with the Chicago Bears may not be secure for long.
The Bears picked Gill in the seventh round (255th overall) in 2022, and he has been the team’s punter for the past two years. One top insider believes the team could do something fairly rare, however: select another punter in the upcoming NFL draft just a few seasons later.
Longtime Bears insider Brad Biggs was at the Senior Bowl in Mobile last week, and he left thinking Iowa punter Tory Taylor is a definite option for Chicago in April’s draft. “Iowa’s Tory Taylor could be the highest-drafted punter in the NFL in more than a decade,” Biggs wrote on February 3. “He’s someone to keep an eye on for the Bears, who at minimum will want to provide serious competition for Trenton Gill.”
Biggs also believes Taylor could get drafted as early as the second or third rounds.
“I’d be stunned if he makes it out of the fourth round and he could have his name called earlier,” Biggs added. “Taylor dazzled in practice this week with his ability to land punts inside the 10- and 5-yard lines with bounce and spin that made them easier to cover. His kicks can be difficult to catch and he has excellent accuracy.”
Bears Would Be Getting Big Game-Changer in Iowa Punter Tory Taylor
It started as a joke, but Iowa Punter Tory Taylor looks really smooth out here. Not pictured in this video were the 3 punts in a row he landed within the 5.
His directional control is nice — I’m no punter scout, but he places the ball where he wants to. Keep an eye on the #Bears
Taylor, a 26-year-old native of Australia, came over to the United States to play college football with the Hawkeyes in 2020. He spent the last four seasons in Iowa, where 43.1% of his 295 total punts pinned opponents back inside their own 20-yard-line. With a defensive-minded head coach like Matt Eberflus leading the way, one could certainly see the appeal of adding a player capable of a skill like that.
He averaged 46.3 yards per punt at Iowa, and an impressive 48.2 yards per punt in 2023. Twelve punters in the NFL averaged more than 48.2 yards per boot last season, so adding Taylor would likely give the Bears a top-10 player at the position.
Taylor won the Ray Guy Award in 2023, which is given annually to the nation’s best punter. He’s also known for his rare ability to make punts extremely difficult to catch and field due to a nasty spin he puts on the ball. Check out the spin on this one:
And this is why Tory Taylor deserves to win the Heisman Trophy.
A punt from the 43-yd line that flies exactly 42 yds in the air, lands at the 1-yd line with back spin, and is downed at the 4-yd line.
A game-changer.
But is he worth spending a draft pick on? That’ll be up to Bears general manager Ryan Poles.
Trenton Gill Has Been Underwhelming in His 2 Seasons With Bears
Few expected much from Gill as a seventh-round pick, but he did enough to impress his rookie season to win the starting job and stick around. The 25-year-old Gill has had some memorable and booming punts over his two seasons with Chicago, including a career-long 76-yards against the Arizona Cardinals on Christmas Eve.
Still, he has had issues with consistency, accuracy and ball placement and has failed to help Chicago flip the field on a regular basis.
Gill’s 46.1 average yards per punt last season ranked 25th out of 32 punters, per Pro Football Reference. Gill ranked 30th in the NFL in punts that were downed inside the 20-yard line. Gill was third in the league in touchbacks, which isn’t a great stat to be ranked high in.
There’s no doubt Taylor would be a huge upgrade over Gill, the question is whether he’ll fall to the Bears — and whether they’ll want to nab him if he does. Biggs seems to think so, and he’s quite plugged in, so Taylor should be a name to watch heading into the upcoming draft.