NFL: Australian punter Tory Taylor has been selected by the Chicago bears in the NFL draft.
Australian rookie Tory Taylor is one of the new faces of a Chicago Bears team on a rise, while already established star Jordan Mailata is taking on more responsibility at Philadelphia.
But all the talk from the pre-season suggests Chicago doesn’t just see Taylor as your traditional punter. Instead, the Bears view him as a weapon. “I think the biggest thing is we want to make our opponent as uncomfortable as possible,” Poles added. A lot of that stems from the addition of Williams and receiver Rome Odunze, but there is also plenty of hype for Taylor, with CHGO’s Adam Hoge declaring the Australian punter a “weapon”.
“So that’s cool when you hear your peers say stuff like that. And kudos to Ryan and his staff because he wouldn’t have lasted to the backend of the fourth and definitely would’ve been gone in the fifth. I got that confirmation from three teams already.” The pair rotated with each other at the position in the latter stages of the regular season last year as the Ravens played with one eye to the future, looking to give the raw Australian prospect some much-needed reps at the position while learning from an experienced teammate.
It is certainly an upside swing from a Baltimore team that traded Moses to the Jets and let both starting guards walking in free agency, leaving a glaring hole in the offensive line. At this point in his career you know what you are going to get from Mailata on the field, but still there is always room to grow and it looks like this year the Australian has put an emphasis on taking up more of a leadership role.
“It’s natural. I have had the best examples in the room. I know what it should look like. When we fall short, we just need something to pick ourselves back up again.”Speaking of Mailata, it is still incredible to think of how far he has come since he first arrived in America. At that point, he didn’t know a down from a touchdown.
Laekin Vakalahi during joint training camp between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. Vakalahi, who stands at 6-foot-5 and 318 pounds , was discovered after a friend of Eagles international scout Chris Naeole met his parents when they were in Hawaii on holiday. Former Gold Coast Suns prospect Patrick Murtagh signed with the Detroit Lions last year through the NFL’s International Pathway Program, only to have his dream cut short due to an undisclosed medical issue.
“Seeing a guy that’s newly introduced to the game and how fast he’s picked it up and how well he looks and his drive and his effort, his willingness to just get in and learn and do anything, it’s unfortunate,” Jacksonville’s starting tight end Evan Engram said, per“Everything happens for a reason, but I think he’ll be somebody that’s going to recover real fast and get right back in the mix.
“I hung up the phone and a couple of minutes later, the team back home from Australia called me,” Murtagh added. “The video the proudest I’ve ever been seeing my mum and my sister being so happy knowing we can get our life back on track when dad is not around anymore and that hurt, just having it all turned around in three days and then that puts me back in a hole back in Australia.Now Murtagh finds himself asking the same question, although hopefully he will be back healthy again soon and should still be able to hold his spot on the practice squad.
In fact, after Pittsburgh’s 9-3 loss to Buffalo, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said the net punting was an “area of improvement”. The offensive line and running back room should be strengths but as a whole, early signs from the preseason aren’t promising for the Steelers being a particularly explosive offence.Matthew Hayball Lou Hedley, who was coming off his first season in the league, may have still been learning and perfecting his craft, but he took on a mentoring role of sorts following the arrival of fellow Australian punter Matthew Hayball.
In the end, the Saints seem to have gone with the upside of what Hayball could offer, having already seen what Hedley can produce in his first season with the team.Source: Getty Images Hedley ranked near the bottom of the league in both punting average and net punting average and said earlier in the month that adding distance onto the back of kicks was a focus for him.Saints coach Dennis Allen said in the preseason that it was a “legitimate competition” between the pair.
The 49ers should be in the mix for the championship again too, although the holdouts of star offensive lineman Trent Williams and receiver Brandon Aiyuk have been the talk of the offseason.
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