After a dream season, the Chicago Bears will be looking to find things that can take them to the next level in 2026. Some of the improvements Chicago must make in their pass rush and secondary are obvious to fans, but one area that may need a little more substance is special teams.
Special teams often don’t get the credit they deserve, but they were front and center in Sunday’s Super Bowl. With the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks both struggling to generate offense, Seattle punter Michael Dickson was an unheralded hero, punting seven times for an average of 47.9 yards and having three kicks land inside the Patriots’ 10-yard line.
Those punts helped the Seahawks maintain field position until they finally broke through late in the 29-13 victory and should have the attention of Bears fans. After all, Bears punter Tory Taylor will be looking to rebound from a tough 2025 campaign and could already be on the hot seat after Dickenson’s performance in the Super Bowl.
Bears' Tory Taylor Punting His Way onto the Hot Seat in 2026
According to SI’s Bil Huber's final special teams ratings, the Bears’ special teams unit ranked 15th in the NFL last season. Chicago was an average unit across the board, taking into consideration opponents net punting yards, kickoff coverage and return units and field goal percentage. However, an area the Bears came up short is their net punt yardage, where they ranked 24th.
Punting isn’t the most exciting thing to talk about unless you’re an Iowa Hawkeyes fan, and that may be ironic considering Taylor is an alum. The “Punting Is Winning” mantra coined by his college coach was supposed to give Chicago a special teams weapon when he was selected in the fourth round of the 2024 draft, but his 2025 performance left a lot to be desired.
Taylor punted more than he would have liked in his rookie campaign, but his 82 attempts came with an average of 47.7 yards, a net average of 41.5 yards, and a touchback percentage of 4.9%. In addition, 41.5% of his punts wound up inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, which was a bright spot in an otherwise lost season.
Ben Johnson’s offense helped Taylor see less action in his second year, with 22 fewer punts, but the results weren’t the same. While he averaged 47.8 yards per punt, he nearly doubled his number of touchbacks from four in his rookie season to seven last year. That also spiked his touchback rate to 11.7%, and only 35% of punts landed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
Those numbers aren’t cause for panic, as Dickson has posted a touchback rate over 10% three times with the Seahawks, including rates of 12.1% in 2023 and 11.8% in 2024. It is also a problem considering the Bears' defense could have used some help.
Chicago allowed the league’s fifth-highest net yards per passing attempt at 6.8, and they ranked 29th in total defense in Dennis Allen’s first season. The Bears’ 23rd-ranked scoring defense at 24.4 points per game could have also looked worse if they didn’t lead the NFL in interceptions (23) and turnover rate (18.3%).
While Bears fans don’t want to talk about turnover regression entering next season, it may not be as big a factor if Taylor does his job. It may also cause some disappointment to invest a relatively high draft pick on Taylor, who could be heading into a make-or-break season with the Bears in 2026.