CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears’ Tory Taylor earned NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors for his performance booting away footballs on fourth down against the Los Angeles Rams, according to a press release from the NFL Wednesday.

Taylor totaled five punts in Chicago’s victory over the Rams, with a 55.4-yard average (48.0 net), with three of those five punts landing inside the 10-yard line (5, 8 and 8), the most of any punter in Week 4.

“I think it’s one of those things when my career is done, I want [Ryan Hightower] and [Ryan] Poles to look like absolute geniuses,” Taylor said Wednesday before practice. “At the end of the day, I also want to be one of those guys that no one really knows about and kind of just does his business and runs off the field.

“I feel like, to me, that’s how you play for a really long time and I just want to be consistent.”

This is the first-career Special Teams Player of the Week Award for Taylor, who became the second Bears punter to earn the honor, joining Brad Maynard in Week 16 of the 2007 season, and the first Bears rookie to earn the honor since 2009.

“He’s unbelievable,” said Caleb Williams on Wednesday. “The night we drafted him, that was the first time I’ve ever looked at a punter highlight tape [before].”

In a show of confidence, Williams originally told the media that he texted Taylor on the night he was drafted and told him he wouldn’t be punting much with the Bears. But as the team has worked to gain their footing on offense, Taylor has been a weapon to leverage field position back in their favor when things haven’t gone their way on that side of the ball.

“It was one of those running jokes on draft night,” Williams said. “I sent him a few other [things], but that was what came out of what I said. I’m grateful to have him for what he does for this team.

“He’s such a great human, let alone an outstanding punter, to do some of the things he does. I think it was a 65-yard punt that pinned them at the 10-yard line before we go and get that pick at the end of the game to go and seal it … He’s unbelievable.”

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Through four games, Taylor has punted the ball 20 times for 958 yards (5th in the NFL), averaging 47.9 yards per punt with a 42-yard net average.

Nine of those punts have been downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, which is three away from the Bears’ rookie record of 12.

Taylor’s honor also marked the third consecutive year in which a rookie punter won a Special Teams Player of the Week award. The Iowa alum joined Ethan Evans (Week 11, 2023), Ryan Stonehouse (Week 10, 2022), Jake Camarda (Week 9, 2022) and Ryan Wright (Week 6, 2022).

The Chicago Bears take on the Carolina Panthers at Soldier Field Sunday, with kickoff set for noon CT.

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