Hightower impressed with Tory Taylor, talks Panthers' special teams |
CHICAGO - As a special teams coordinator like Richard Hightower, perhaps one of the best indicators of your success as a coach is when one of your players receives recognition like rookie punter Tory Taylor did after he was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his elite performance against the Indianapolis Colts.
Hightower is incredibly proud of Taylor and the rest of the punt team, who contributed to him receiving this award. “Kid works extremely hard and the great thing about him is he doesn’t care anything about stats. All he cares about is helping his team and being there for the team. So, I was really excited to see him be a weapon in such a huge way to help the football team right there, and the punt team, in general, is really doing a really nice job for him, allowing him to be comfortable,” Hightower said. “All those guys on that unit, starting with (snapper Scott) Daly doing a great job, along with (defensive lineman Daniel) Hardy, (linebacker Jack) Sanborn, (linebacker) Noah Sewell, (running back) Khalil Herbert and then obviously (defensive back Elijah) Hicks and then the gunners. Tory would not want me to send a congratulations to him without mentioning guys like (defensive back) Josh Blackwell and (defensive back) Jaylon Jones and all the guys that are out there doing a lot to help him get that award.” In Chicago’s 24-18 victory against the Los Angeles Rams, Taylor had five punts for an average of 55.4 yards. Three of them were inside the 10-yard line with one touchback. His longest punt of the game was 66 yards, and he had another punt of 65 yards. At the end of the game, he pinned the Rams at their own eight yard line, forcing them to have to try to drive 92 yards with barely over a minute in the game with no timeouts left. “What I like the most about the whole game for him and the punt team is that, and it’s been well-documented, he didn’t feel like he played up to his standard the way he wanted to play the game before and for him to come out and perform that way, which happens with all rookies. All rookies are going to have ups and downs. That’s how the league is,” Hightower said. “But for that kid to dig down deep inside and give us two, not one, … and give us two outstanding, game-changing plays in critical moments says a lot about his character and says a lot about what’s been brewing inside of him.” Given how successful he has been as a punter, there has been talk about Taylor trying some kickoffs or field goals. Part of the reason for this is that kicker Cairo Santos, while reliable inside of 50 yards, has not been reliable outside of 50 yards, including a missed 56-yard field goal against the Indianapolis Colts. Taylor’s leg allows him to kick that distance; however, as a rookie in this league, Hightower does not want too much on his plate. “I think you always have to guard against putting too much on his plate,” Hightower said. “But, we work on field goals with him all the time just because you always have to be ready in an emergency situation if that ever comes up. So, that’s something we’re working on the side of all the time.” Going into their game this coming Sunday against the Carolina Panthers (Noon / FOX), Hightower’s unit will face one of the best punters in the league in Johnny Hekker. Hekker is currently in his thirteenth season in the NFL and has been named a Pro Bowler and All-Pro four times. Hightower used to work for the San Francisco 49ers and thus saw a lot of Hekker, as he was on the Rams his first ten seasons. Usually, a punter does not pose a dual-threat ability. However, Hekker is a rare exception. Throughout his career, he has attempted 25 passes, completing 15 of them for 193 yards and a touchdown. Hekker has not thrown an interception since joining the Panthers in 2022. “The kid was a former quarterback. He’s really good at throwing the football, and he’s also good at punting, and he’s got a lot of different tricks in his bag, and to me, that’s a guy that Tory’s been watching forever, and he’s a great guy to study,” Hightower said. “There’s a lot of tape to look at and a lot to study, and believe me, we look at all of it, and the players have done a great job looking at all of it, and they’re detailed. They’re so detailed. So, the meetings have been good this week.” The major change in special teams this year is the new dynamic kickoff. While it has not been as dynamic as fans were hoping for, Hightower has seen it pay off for several teams. Carolina is one team who takes advantage of the dynamic kickoff by forcing teams to return it and by having their returner return some of the kickoffs. “Heavy kicking (and) covering team, seen that on tape. So, we know for a fact they’re going to be kickoff return opportunities and then they also return the ball a ton too. So, they’ve factored in big time on kickoff and kickoff return. They have made it a play there, and they use it. Their kickoff return team, I think you can look at their first game and see that one (and) there’s 10 out of 11 returns that game. So, that one skews it a little bit. But they do both. They kick it off, and then they return it. So, it’s going to be a big-time challenge for us this week, and the kickoff is getting a lot of plays,” Hightower said. “If you just study it, there were 112 kickoffs last year at a 17 percent return rate, and this year so far, we got 189, and we are at a 29 percent return rate, almost 30. So, that’s an improvement, and four or five of those have been past the 40-yard line, 10 percent of kickoffs have been greater than the 30-yard line, and there’s been one touchdown as well. So, it’s a play, and we will have to be prepared for it.”
