The NFL is back, with the Baltimore Ravens and defending champion Kansas City Chiefs squaring off in the season-opener next Friday morning (AEST).
Can the Chiefs defy history to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls?
That is just one of many burning questions ahead of the new season, which will also feature a number of Australians in intriguing situations.
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McCarthy ruled out for the season | 00:54
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.
Elsewhere, could Australia have its next big name in the league with one player set to play a prominent role in his team’s success in the 2024-25 season?
All that and more in our first edition of Australians in the NFL ahead of the new season!
Tory Taylor (punter, Chicago Bears)
While the Australian punter was widely expected to be the first punter taken off the board in the 2024 NFL Draft, it seemed like few people had Taylor having his name called in the fourth round.
At least, that is if you go by the reaction to the Bears taking the Iowa punter with the 122nd pick. It was the highest pick used on a punter in five years.
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.
A weapon that they didn’t want to use too much in the pre-season, only giving Taylor three punting attempts in the win over Cincinnati and otherwise resting them in their other games.
Taylor averaged 50 yards per punt but otherwise Bears fans have had to settle for highlights from training camp, and there have been plenty.
Bears GM Ryan Poles said on Hard Knocks that Taylor has a “unique ability and skillset to have a powerful leg to flip the field”.
“I think the biggest thing is we want to make our opponent as uncomfortable as possible,” Poles added.
“He’s so good at pinning the ball inside the 10-yard line. People joke and say he’s like Scottie Scheffler in terms of his ability to place the ball. He has different techniques to do it, so he takes it to a whole different level.”
In case you aren’t familiar with Taylor, he is just the latest success story to come out of Prokick Australia, the punting pipeline founded by Nathan Chapman and John Smith in 2007.
Taylor was a cult hero of sorts at Iowa, and while naturally he was always going to be a fan favourite with his Australian accent and carefree nature, it was his punting prowess that really won them over.
Put simply, Taylor was the offence for the Hawkeyes, who consistently struggled to move the ball down the field and often won games off the back of the Australian’s ability to flip the field.
Taylor, who won the Ray Guy Award last season as the nation’s top punter, averaged 48.2 yards per punt at Iowa in 2023 and pinned 43.1 per cent of his career punts in college inside the 20-yard line.
Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams jokingly said when Chicago drafted Taylor that “you’re not going to punt too much here”, although the Australian had a cheeky message for his teammate on the bench after consecutive three-and-outs against the Bengals.
“I thought you said no more punts. We had three in the first quarter, man,” Taylor said.
“It’s just preseason. I wanted to get you a couple,” Williams replied.
There may be a few early learning curves for Williams and the Bears offence, but as a whole there is plenty of optimism that Chicago will be one of the big risers in the NFL this season.
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”.
“There is something different about the spin on the ball and we see it in practice every day,” he said on 670 The Score.
“He actually will stand there on the 45-yard line and put these things right in the corner of the field, over and over again and the ball doesn’t bounce into the end zone, it bounces back into the field which is what you want it to do.
“I’m calling him the weapon. It should actually give Caleb Williams and the offence favourable field position for most of the season.”
Special teams coach Richard Hightower even revealed in an interview with CHGO that while plenty of draft experts questioned taking Taylor in the fourth round, the reaction from rival teams was the complete opposite.
“There was no way he was getting to the fifth round,” he said.
“We got angry coaches on other teams saying ‘I can’t believe you guys took him’ … in a good way. … ‘We got it wrong and you guys got it right.’
“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 (he) definitely would’ve been gone in the fifth. I got that confirmation from three teams already.”
The 27-year-old Taylor didn’t punt during the Bears’ preseason opener last Thursday in Canton, Ohio, which Hightower called an organizational decision. The Bears held Taylor out because they wanted to prevent opponents from getting an early read on his punting abilities and tendencies.
Taylor can create big hangtime on his punts and even puts some spin on the football – which is different from most punters in the NFL.
Daniel Faalele (offensive tackle, Baltimore Ravens)
While Jordan Mailata has already established himself as one of the premier offensive tackles in the league, Daniel Faalele is an emerging Australian to keep a close eye on this season.
Heading into his third year in the league, Faalele is set to take on added responsibility as he looks to fill the void left behind by veteran Baltimore right guard Morgan Moses.
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.
The 2022 fourth-rounder, who was more of a developmental player when the Ravens drafted him and a reserve tackle in his first two years in the league, stands at 6-foot-8 (203cm) and 380 pounds (172kg) and is an impressive athlete for his size.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said earlier in the month that Faalele has been particularly impressive in pass protection, telling reporters the Australian has “done a really good job”.
“He’s been in front of his guy; there’s a lot of technique things,” Harbaugh said.
“His room for improvement is really vast, because he’s so talented, and he’s naturally able to do so many good things.
“When he takes the next step in terms of an urgency in the movement that comes with confidence, you’re going to see a more physical player, because the physicality is there.
“He’s big, and he can move, and he can bend. He’s a powerful man, and he wants to be good. I think the upside is pretty immense.”
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.
The Athletic’s Ravens beat writer, Jeff Zrebiec, described it as a “major leap of faith” from the team in an article ahead of Baltimore’s first preseason game against the Eagles.
The Ravens once again project as a potential Super Bowl contender, but much of their success will come down to if some of the younger players, including Faalele, can step up.
Faalele, who revealed he had been texting former Ravens guard Kevin Zeitler in the summer for advice, said the conversation about making the move to guard started during minicamp.
“That’s when I first started getting position reps at right guard, and from then on, (I was) transitioning my mind (to) playing inside and (knowing) what to expect coming into (training) camp,” he added.
“(I’m) just building confidence each day.”
There may be some growing pains early on and while Faalele has been improving, The Athletic’s Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen questioned whether experimenting with him at right guard was the correct call given the other concerns along the offensive line.
“Right guard is still a huge question,” Mays said on The Athletic Football Show.
“It’s literally a huge question because a huge man is slotted to play that spot right now, and they’re working through that right now. Daniel Faalele weighs like 380 pounds, and it is always going to be a question of how much he can play at that weight.
“And so, it’s going to be trial-and-error, and the fact that we still have these questions on August 12, even if you have confidence in their ability to figure it out, it’s hard not to feel a little bit uneasy about where those things stand.”
“On the Faalele thing, I don’t like that at guard,” Klassen added.
“That feels to the point where he’s just so big that you’re getting diminishing returns on him. He’s literally too big to play guard.”
Jordan Mailata (left tackle, Philadelphia Eagles)
Mailata is locked in as a key part of Philadelphia’s future, having signed a three-year, $66 million ($A97m) extension in April that keeps him with the Eagles through 2028.
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 comes after the retirement of Jason Kelce, who Mailata revealed last year was the screensaver on his phone because he is the “epitome of a leader”.
Now with Kelce gone, Mailata has taken it upon himself to set standards at training, calling the team’s offensive line play “unacceptable” after three false starts on the first day of camp.
As punishment, Mailata led the offensive line in gassers, which involves sprinting across the field and touching the opposite sideline with your foot and then sprinting back again.
“(It is about) just trying to maintain the standard,” Mailata said.
“Everyone thinks it’s a joke, but it is something that we live by. It is unacceptable that we had three false starts yesterday. Including myself on the very first play of practice.
“There needs to be discipline to uphold the standard.”
Mailata went on to add that he feels “very comfortable” taking on more of a leadership role after Kelce’s retirement.
“Anytime we do something like that, it is from everything that I learned from Jason,” he said.
“When something is not good enough, we have to correct it. Today we had no pre-snap penalties, which is great. It is all about maintaining the standard, and the standard was there before we even came here.”
“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.”
Laekin Vakalahi (offensive tackle, Philadelphia Eagles)
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.
Funnily enough, it is a position rookie Laekin Vakalahi finds himself in after signing with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent and Mailata may just be the best person to mentor Philadelphia’s newest offensive line addition.
After all, Vakalahi has followed a similar path to Mailata, arriving in the States without having played a single down of American football.
Vakalahi is on the Philadelphia roster with an international player roster exemption, giving the Eagles the chance to develop him with the hope he can become their latest Australian success story.
Vakalahi, who stands at 6-foot-5 (195cm) and 318 pounds (144kg), was discovered after a friend of Eagles international scout Chris Naeole met his parents when they were in Hawaii on holiday.
“Naeole walked past my dad and saw he was a big guy and he started talking to him… they had a conversation and my dad said I’ve got some boys, so they started talking about my younger brother Kobe. He’s a big boy but he’s not of age,” Vakalahi told ESPN.
“They got to talking about me and this guy wanted to get me in contact with Chris (Naeole). I was serving a mission at the time for my church.”
After the 21-year-old finished his mission he worked out at a soccer field near Wellington for Naeole.
“He started teaching me all these different stances and got me doing different drills to show my power, technique and flexibility,” added Vakalahi.
“Man I was so puffed… but it was a good workout.”
Vakalahi had dinner with Mailata when he visited Australia during the draft and they have since linked up multiple times in Philadelphia.
Patrick Murtagh (tight end, Jacksonville Jaguars)
From one of the best Australian stories to follow in the NFL this season to one of the most heartbreaking.
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.
Now, after signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars ahead of this season, Murtagh suffered another injury setback as he pushed for a spot on the final 53-player roster.
The Australian tight end went down at practice with a broken right ankle and was carted off the field in an air cast earlier this month.
“Ah man, shit happens, that’s all I can say, surgery done let the rehab begin, again,” Murtagh wrote on Instagram.
“Everything’s going to be ok, got a great team around me and thankful for everyone. #duuuval.”
Murtagh can be carried as an extra “developmental” player on the practice squad and while he was unlikely to get a spot on the 53-man roster, he was pushing for a spot after getting some reps returning kickoffs for the Jaguars.
“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 AP News.
“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.
“We’re going to stand by him. We’re going to support him. We’re going to get him through it. And we’re going to be his family while he’s here and help him get back as fast as possible.”
It is just another hurdle for Murtagh to clear after having his NFL journey cut short last year, opening up on having his Detroit dream dashed on ‘The Pocket with Chris Griffin’.
On the podcast, Murtagh explained that he arrived at the Lions facility and within five minutes had been taken to a hospital to undergo a medical exam.
“I went back to the facility and I was just sitting in the medical room waiting,” he said.
“At the time I’m just happy to be here. I’m on the other side of the world, I’m in the NFL, this is awesome. I was just talking to my mum and friends about what it was like walking around and everything.”
Then, Murtagh received a phone call from the Lions general manager who said the team would no longer be following through with his contract due to the medical issue.
“I hung up the phone and a couple of minutes later, the team back home from Australia called me,” Murtagh added.
“They said, ‘Hey mate, we just got told the news. It’s pretty shit but we’ve booked you a flight tomorrow at 10am’.
“That’s the point when everything just kind of slowed down and I was trying to ask the question, ‘Is this true? Am I actually going home?’, pacing up and down my room trying to figure out what was going on. Is this happening? My suitcase is still… I’m not unpacked.
“My tickets came through for my flight back home, Detroit to Gold Coast. I gave mum a FaceTime a couple of hours later saying, ‘Hey, do you mind picking me up from the Gold Coast Airport’. She was like, ‘Why?’ and I was like, ‘I can’t get signed’.
“The video (of my mother finding out I had a contract was) 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.
“What do I do now? Where do I go from here?”
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.
Cameron Johnston (punter, Pittsburgh Steelers)
While the hype for Johnston’s arrival at Pittsburgh is obviously nowhere near the level of that for the rookie Taylor, there is reason to believe the Australian punter can make a serious impact in his first season with the Steelers.
Johnston, who had been with the Houston Texans since 2021, signed with the Steelers on a three-year, $9 million contract in March.
He came up against the Texans in pre-season action and laid out former teammate Tank Dell on one punt return in a heated incident that brought the two teams together.
But when he wasn’t putting his body on the line against ex-teammates, Johnston was impressing in the preseason with his field-flipping ability.
In fact, after Pittsburgh’s 9-3 loss to Buffalo, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said the net punting was an “area of improvement”.
“A play got flipped this time around. We were much better in this game than we were in the last one,” he said.
Nick Farabaugh, meanwhile, wrote for Penn Live that Johnston “might be the single biggest upgrade the team has made this offseason compared to his replacement”.
“On a dreary day, Johnston looks like a ray of sunshine for the team,” he added.
Johnston punted the ball five times in the first half of the preseason game, totalling 285 yards for an average of 56.8 with a long of 65 and two landing inside the 20.
Johnston’s punting will be particularly handy for a Pittsburgh offence that may struggle to move the ball at times in the upcoming season given the state of the team’s quarterback room.
Neither Russell Wilson nor Justin Fields are coming off good seasons while the pass-catching room is uninspiring outside of George Pickens and tight end Pat Freiermuth.
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.
It means they may have to lean on the defence and Johnston’s ability to flip the field to win games.
Matthew Hayball (punters, New Orleans Saints)
Interestingly, there was an all-Australian punting battle taking place at New Orleans this summer.
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.
Hayball said Hedley had been “great” during the preseason, reaching out to him from day one in an effort to pass on any advice or lessons he learned from his rookie season.
“I’m super proud of Matt, we’re pretty good buddies so it’s good to see him coming in and we can kind of bounce off each other… it’s good having Matty here,” Hedley told reporters earlier in the month.
Neither Hedley nor Hayball did much to command the starting role though, leaving the Saints front office in a tricky position ahead of the league’s squad cut-down deadline on Wednesday.
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.
Hedley averaged 43.7 yards in New Orleans’ final preseason hit-out, with one short punt in the fourth quarter helping give Tennessee the field position to execute a game-winning drive.
Hayball, meanwhile, averaged 50.3 yards in the entire preseason including one 61-yard effort in his debut, but had one of his punts result in a touchback while another two were turned into 34 return yards.
The lack of consistent production from both punters left New Orleans with little choice but to head to the open market to look for an alternative, especially when considering Hedley’s results last season.
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.
“I needed to improve on that,” he said.
“That’s something I went into the offseason improving.”
Saints coach Dennis Allen said in the preseason that it was a “legitimate competition” between the pair.
“Both of these guys have strong legs, both have had really good days, both have some things they need to try to improve on,” Allen said.
There is still the chance the Saints bring in another more experienced punter through free agency but for now it is Hayball who looks set for the start.
Mitch Wishnowsky (punter, San Francisco 49ers)
Wishnowsky is once again locked in as San Francisco’s punter as the 49ers look to go one better, having made it all the way to the Super Bowl last season before falling short.
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.
Wishnowsky has also spent time on the sidelines this summer, with the 32-year-old sitting out the first two preseason games with a knee issue that is not considered serious enough to put him in any doubt for the season opener.
In proof of that, Wishnowsky was the holder on a 47-yard field goal attempt from Jake Moody in the 49ers’ final preseason hit-out against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Pressley Harvin, who San Francisco had signed as its temporary replacement for the injured Wishnowsky in preseason games, impressed with his opportunities but the Australian is still the first-choice option.
Michael Dickson (punter, Seattle Seahawks)
Not much new to report here, with Dickson widely considered one of the best punters in the league and once again locked into the starting role with the Seahawks.
Dickson is entering his seventh season with Seattle and while last season was a step backwards for the Seahawks, the hope is that a healthy offensive line and coaching shake-up will lead to better results.
Specifically, the addition of former Washington Huskies co-ordinator Ryan Grubb should lead to more explosive plays for a Seahawks offence that has several weapons in the passing game.
Speaking to Seattle Sports ahead of the new season, Dickson was asked about the external perception that the Seahawks are somewhat of an intriguing team to watch this year with plenty of question marks.
“I feel like that’s kind of been the reality of this team since I’ve been here,” Dickson said.
“There’s always been something that’s happened and it’s always like, ‘Probably not going to make the playoffs’ and we do.”
That wasn’t the case last year though, with the Seahawks finishing third in the NFC West with a 9-8 record.
Source Agencies
