Report: Bears special teams coordinator confirms Tory Taylor pick angered rival GMs

Tory Taylor may have been one of the hottest commodities in the 2024 NFL Draft

At first, very few Bears fans knew anything about Tory Taylor, aside from him being a punter. Taylor was the Chicago Bears’ fourth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. The immediate reaction was that the Bears reached on a player in a position they didn’t need.

Since the pick has been made, it has become clear that Tory Taylor was highly valued among NFL general managers.

CHGO Bears interview with Bears special teams coordinator confirms the high value of Tory Taylor

On Tuesday, Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower confirmed on the CHGO Bears Podcast, that other NFL teams are quite upset the Bears selected Taylor. CHGO Bears host Adam Hoge asked Hightower about the Bears selection of Tory Taylor and what he thinks of it. Hightower brought up that he had received some frustrated text messages from other special teams coaches around the NFL.

Here is what Hightower had to say about the aftermath of the Bears drafting Tory Taylor

“Now that the dust has settled and now that the text messages have started between special teams coaches and coordinators, Ryan Poles and his staff did a hell of a job with those mock drafts and being on top of all that stuff. Because there was no way he (Tory Taylor) was getting to the fifth-round.

We got angry coaches on other teams saying, ‘I can’t believe you guys took him (Tory Taylor), we can’t believe that you did that, In a good way’. ‘we didn’t think you were going to do that’. ‘We didn’t suspect you guys, we got it wrong, and you got it right’. So that’s cool when you hear your peers say stuff like that.

And kudos to Ryan’s staff, because he (Tory Taylor) wouldn’t have lasted till the back end of the fourth, and definitely would have been gone in the fifth. I’ve gotten that confirmation form three teams already.”

The clip of Hightower talking about Tory Taylor can be viewed below.