Let’s take a brief look at the [Chicago Bears](https://www.windycitygridiron.com/)' special teams unit as we continue to look at what position groups have building blocks as a part of them.
We have defined a building block by the following factors: age, contract, ability, position, and projection.
So let’s dive in.
### **Scott Daly**
Long snappers are not building blocks.
_**No block.**_
### **Cairo Santos**
I don’t think Cairo Santos will be on this team much longer. He may be on the team this year, but I think it’s a stretch if he’s back on this team in 2026. The Bears could bring in a kicker to compete with Santos during camp, and if Santos loses, he would only leave behind about $1 million in dead cap.
The odds Santos receives another contract from Chicago are close to zero. He has wonderful accuracy inside the 40, but expect Ben Johnson not to trust him to be consistent enough outside of 40, and especially outside of 50. Santos’ contract runs through 2027, and at this point, it’s just a question of when the Bears make a switch at kicker.
_**No block.**_
### **Tory Taylor**
Alright, this one is interesting. First of all, it takes a lot for a punter to be a building block. It also takes a lot to draft a punter in the fourth round. This was a move that was made by a GM who thought his roster was closer than it was.
That aside, Taylor is here, and he’s a popular player among Bears fans. There’s a good chance that Taylor could be the Bears’ punter for the next 8 to 10 years, but just because he’s here for a long time, that doesn’t necessarily make him a building block. For a punter to reach that status, like Ryan Poles said, he needs to be a weapon.
Taylor was good as a rookie, but he was not a weapon. For that top happen, Taylor needs to get punts inside the 10 regularly and be flipping the field for the Bears defense. He did that at times last year, but not consistently. There is some adjustment punting from college to pro, players need to speed up their process and they need to adjust their angles when punting from the hashmarks, but it’s not a process that should take several years.
If Taylor is a building block, he needs to be the best punter in the NFL. Not second. Not third. The best. Based on where he was after his rookie season, the expectation should be that Taylor will be very good, but not sure if emerges as the league’s top punter.
_**No block.**_ (Sorry, Jeff Berckes)
It was going to take a lot for me to consider Taylor a building block. But we are six position groups into this, and so far, we have only identified two building blocks on this roster: Caleb Williams and Cole Kmet.
We still have to review the trenches on both sides of the ball, wide receivers, and cornerbacks. There should be some more building blocks in these position groups, but when you are assessing the roster and you only have two players from six position groups, suddenly it’s more understandable how the 2024 Bears only won five games.