LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Not long after he was drafted by the Chicago Bears with the 122nd pick, former Iowa punter Tory Taylor received a congratulatory text from his new quarterback that came with a proclamation.
"Caleb [Williams] just texted me before saying 'hey you're not going to punt too much here,' which is great," Taylor said on Saturday. "That was pretty funny."
Taylor, who won the Ray Guy Award as the most outstanding collegiate punter, set the NCAA record with 4,479 yards on 93 punts, which broke the total yardage mark that had stood for 85 years. His 44.3 net yards per punt in 2023 ranked third in FBS while his career average of 46.3 yards is the most in NCAA history by a punter with more than 250 punts.
In many ways, Taylor was Iowa's most important offensive weapon during the Hawkeyes' run to the Big Ten championship last season. The Hawkeyes finished 130th of 133 teams in points per game (16.6) and amassed 3,284 total yards.
Taylor's punts outgained the Iowa offense by 1,195 yards, something that he, nor his new quarterback, are expecting to happen in Chicago this season.
"Certainly the NFL is going to be a lot different than Iowa," Taylor said. "I punted, what was it, 90-something times, nearly 300 times in my career almost. I know it's not going to be like that in the NFL but as long as I'm punting balls, I don't really care what happens."
Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Taylor is the latest talent to reach the NFL from the esteemed Prokick Australia pipeline. He is the first Australian punter drafted since Mitch Wishnowsky was picked up in the fourth round of 2019. Another Australian punter, Lou Hedley, landed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2023 and won the starting job.
The Bears came into the final day of the draft with one pick in the fourth round after selecting Williams with the first pick and pairing him with wide receiver Rome Odunze at No. 9 and offensive tackle Kiran Amegadije at No. 75.
It's rare to see specialists drafted in the fourth round, and it's only happened with punters three times since 2012: Jordan Stout (Baltimore), Jake Camarda (Tampa Bay) and Wishnowsky (San Francisco).
"[Taylor is] one of the best punters I've ever seen, just in terms of his placement as well as his leg strength to be able to flip the field," general manager Ryan Poles said.