Can Taywan Taylor still be a factor?

I just watched some of his drops. He had a crossing route against the Chargers that went through his hands.

Most of the others are just him not being strong and going up for the ball. Instead of committing to going and getting a ball and high pointing it, he'll make adjustments to try to stay clean and either end up letting the db make a play or puts himself out of position and facing a more difficult catch.

I think coaching can build him up to be more assertive and then even if he can't get the catch, maybe he forces the PI call.

 

When you have already run the route and you are open and the ball is coming in to you...your head is not spinning from thinking. You just catch the ball. There is no difference in year 2-3 in terms of catching the ball.

Unless he started playing wr 3 years ago...that muscle memory is already there.

 

Bottom line...Taylor can and should do better. I legit saw him blow plays, and I also saw him wide open and get missed by Mariota multiple times. Zero chemistry. He’s a weapon though, and his deep threat ability will keep him here ahead of others.

 

There is a reason why they are called focus drops. When guys with great ball tracking skills and hands like Davante Adams have struggled mightily with those early in their careers.

 

If you got to rotoworld and look at the metrics, Adams has 16 drops in the last 2 years and drops the ball at a higher rate than Taylor.

 

The only understandable drop is when you dive for the ball and barely get your fingertips on the back end of the ball. But that’s different from the ball hitting you in the hands. In all 3 drops I remember last season the ball hit him in his hands. Nothing to do with thinking about routes or fighting thru a dB. He was open and the ball hit him in both hands and in one case...went thru his hands and hit him in the head.

The only thing making that better is 100-200 catches a day on the jugs machine and spending an extra hour a day running patterns with a qb. I hear Brown and one of the qbs come in early to study and stay late after practice getting in extra throwing, catching and route running!

 

There was the one against the Dolphins where he laid out in the end zone and the Dolphin defender wrapped him up around the waist as he was diving. I think he possibly could have benefited in just running over the db and asking for the call instead of a low percentage catch.

The was another, don't remember the team offhand, where he was outside right, got open, the ball was underthrown a bit, and he stopped and turned and the db flashed in front of him and it kind of hit him on the left shoulder.

Can't really tell if it is a ball tracking issue or if he is scared of contact. Or both.

 

You can't go by the stats...you have to look at each play to be able to compare.

 

Are you suggesting he has GREAT ball tracking skills? I went back and looked through some of his college tape. He can make some very difficult catches and made the catch in college he dropped last year against the Dolphins. So not really sure if he has a tracking issue, hands issue, focus issues. Whatever the case may be, we signed and drafted his potential replacements so he needs to go BEYOND expectations and beyond just practicing with everyone else. The ROOK is already coming in early and staying late. I would be too! He needs to make the roster and to do that, he needs to be 3rd or higher on the wr depth chart or be a starting special teams player (preferably a punt returner and gunner).

 

People need to chill on Mariota being bad, football is a team sport and 1 player cant do it all every game but people still wanna blame Mariota even when the offense is riddled with injuries, all the WR's has a catch rate of 50%, and the staff and offense gets changed yearly, 3 different head coaches and 4 offensive coordinators going into his 5th year. When Mariota gets a fair shot then you can talk bad about him but to refuse to see what he's done for the Titans is insane.