Why the Seahawks pick of Darrell Taylor is a very good one

The Seahawks chose Darrell Taylor in the second round. Some 12s might not like the pick but Taylor is going to be a very good player.

Darrell Taylor is a full grown man. The Seahawks needed an edge rusher early. Lots of 12s might have wanted Seattle to take Yetur Gross-Matos or A.J. Epenesa. Seattle didn’t. But Darrell Taylor might just end up being better than both of those players. And Taylor won’t have anything stop him from reaching his potential.

There were times early in his college career at the University of Tennessee where Taylor might have felt like he was making plays all on his own. Think of him in terms of the way Jadeveon Clowney nearly single-handedly beat the 49ers in week 10 in 2019. Teams knew Taylor was the Tennessee’s difference maker and still couldn’t stop him many times.

In the Vols opener of 2017, Tennessee’s defense gave up 41 points to Georgia Tech, but Taylor had 12 tackles. Against a Georgia team in 2018 that would finish ranked 7th in the nation and beat Tennessee 38-12, Taylor had 3 sacks and 2 tackles for loss. Later in the season, Taylor had 4 sacks and 4 tackles for loss against Kentucky.

Tennessee won its final 6 games of the 2019 season and Taylor was a big reason for it. In those final 6 games, Taylor had 6 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. At the end of his college career, Taylor had become on the better players in the toughest college football conference in the nation, the SEC.

Basically, Taylor knows what it is like to work hard. He will be a perfect fit for the Seahawks. Sure, he was a bit inconsistent in college for his first three years but he played on bad teams and sometimes was the only focus for opposing teams on the Vols defensive line. But most times his speed and athleticism was simply too difficult for college teams to handle.

Stand next to Taylor and he won’t look like a defensive end, maybe more like a linebacker. But then you will realize he is 6’4″ and 255 pounds with the capacity to gain 10 or 15 more pounds and not lose much quickness. He is also built a lot like Seattle’s D.K. Metcalf, pure muscle.

But the thing that will separate Taylor in the NFL is his high-motor, drive to succeed and quickness. 12s may have wanted a bigger-name edge rusher early in the 2020 NFL draft. But by his second season, Darrell Taylor will make 12s forget that there was any other choice but him. Simply put, Taylor is going to make the Seahawks a better football team.