With the emergence of Devin Hester and Robbie Gould plus aces like Ayanbadejo and Peterson the Bears reached a level of Special Teams last year and see no reason why they cannot again.
FOX continues to rank each team by position and rank the Bears with the best special teams.
The Bears went from one of the league's worst units in 2005 to its best last season, and Dave Toub has the NFL Special Teams Coach of the Year Award to prove it. The obvious reason is Devin Hester, the team's second-round pick who scored six special teams touchdowns. Second-year kicker Robbie Gould bettered his accuracy from 40-plus yards, converting on 12 of 14 attempts (up from 3 of 8 as a rookie), and upped his touchback totals from one in 2005 to 11 last year. Brad Maynard is an adequate bad-weather punter, but he struggled to pin opponents inside the 20-yard line and keep the ball out of the end zone.
It will be interesting to see how the Bears Special Teams squad plays this year, with Hester playing more offense and Peterson likely to see more time as Cedric Benson's backup.