Bears Rookie Report Card: Grading the Rookies After First Quarter of the Season
The Bears are sitting at just about where most fans thought they would be after four games. They are coming off their overall best performance against a banged-up Rams team but struggled heavily against the Texans and Colts in the weeks prior. If not for some great special teams and defensive play in week one, they could easily be looking at a 1-3 record.
We knew to expect some growing pains with an essentially brand-new offense including multiple new pieces and a new play-caller. However, I don't think we thought it would look as bad as it has at times so far. It is still very early and there seems to be improvement on a weekly basis so the panic button is not in play just yet.
The Bears only had four draft picks in this year's draft so they needed to make impact picks with them. Let's take a look at how those picks are looking thus far.
Tory Taylor, P
Many viewed Taylor as a reach when the Bears selected him in the fourth round, 122nd overall. Anytime a kicker is selected in the draft, it is likely paired with some scrutiny from fans and analysts. Taylor was undoubtedly the best punter in college the previous two years, while single-handedly carrying Iowa to a few wins. He did not start his rookie year as well as he would have liked with only six punts inside the 20 out of his first 15.
If there are such things as "coming out games" for punters, then this past week was just that for Taylor. He punted five times averaging 55.4 yards on them, one of which was only 35 yards since he punted from the LAR 43 and pinned them inside the 10. If you take out that kick, he averaged 60.5 yards. Out of the five punts, three of them were inside the 20. He swapped the field each time he stepped on on it this past weekend. It was a much better showing for Taylor this week and hopefully, it was a glimpse of what is to come.