Player: Jason Taylor II
School: Oklahoma State
Measurables:
- Height: 6’ (NFL Combine)
- Weight: 204 (NFL Combine)
- 40: 4.5 (NFL Combine)
- 10 Yard Split: 1.52 (NFL Combine)
- Bench: 14 (NFL Combine)
- Vertical Jump: 43” (NFL Combine)
- Broad Jump: 10’9” (NFL Combine)
- 3 Cone: DNP
- 20 Yard Shuttle: DNP
- Other Notes: Taylor did really well in the athletic testing as well as the on field drills.
Graded Position Specific Traits:
- Field Vision: 6.25/10
- Range: 6.25/10
- In-The-Box Zone Coverage: 5.75/10
- Deep Zone Coverage: 6.5/10
- Tackling: 5.75/10
- Man Coverage: 6.25/10
- Run Support: 5.75/10
Prospect Grade: 42.5/70; 60.7% Borderline starter with the potential to be a great starter
Projected Draft Day: Round 4- Early Round 5
Player Comparison: Caden Sterns
Player Summary:
Taylor is a hard player to get a grade on due to some inconsistencies in his Oklahoma State tape. It’s hard to tell what his ceiling is, but his floor is relatively safe but he needs to clean up some things to stay more consistent.
One of the first things I noticed about Taylor is that when he’s the single high safety he plays extremely deep sometimes. We are talking probably 20 yards off pre-snap with a pedal at the snap. When he is single high he also aligns in and plays the boundary more than the field, which I can’t say I’ve really ever seen. Most safeties will play the middle or favoring the field for obvious reasons. Despite having solid range, when he aligns to the boundary he can get beat simply because he has so much ground to cover. When he plays this far off too, it pretty much takes him out of run support unless the runner breaks loose.
Tackling wise, he had more missed tackles than you’d like to see. His angles were poor at times and when he made contact he slid off a ton. This is because he would dive for tackles. He needs to bring his feet with him when he tackles more consistently. He has pretty good power in his tackles when he keeps his feet. The other issue is that he tackles too high at times too. If he learns to hit low and bring his feet with him more consistently he’s going to be really good.
Overall, Taylor does make some mental errors Taylor is going to be an early day three pick. He’s one of the more pro ready safeties I’ve watched although I don’t know if he has the upside of some of the other safeties in the class. The positive about Taylor is that despite inconsistent tape he’s had a really strong “draft season”. He played extremely well in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl where we gave him The Gridiron Review’s Defensive Player of the Game. In this game he displayed a high motor and a relentless style of play that doesn’t show itself as much in his tape. He then received an invite to the Senior Bowl where he flashed again. Finally, he lit up the combine as one of the best athletic testing safeties as well as looked extremely strong in the positional drills. He’s shown teams he’s got positional flexibility as well an ability to contribute big time on special teams. Taylor should head into training camp ready to compete for at least some kind of defensive role while also probably having a special teams spot on lock.