By Wake Jatkins (The Crowd Assist Podcast)
When you think of cornerbacks, you think interceptions. You think ball-hawking, athletic defenders with an instinctive nose for the football. To be blunt, that’s not what you’re getting with Keith Taylor. But the Buffalo Bills already have players in the secondary who force turnovers. Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre White… All three can turn a game on its head with a pick. In college, Keith Taylor didn’t have a single interception. It reminds me of when Dawson Knox came out of Ole Miss without a touchdown. Even though he lacks elite playmaking, he’s a solid cornerback who could help the Bills where they hurt last year: missed tackles.
The Buffalo Bills missed 125 tackles last year (6th most in NFL). 31 of those missed tackles were by corners. 17 of them came at the butterfingers of AJ Klein (unrelated, but like… wow). If you watched just one game, that shouldn’t come as a shock to you. Yes, there were games without Tre White, Matt Milano, and other key pieces to this unit. The numbers are still inexcusable.
A lot of these missed tackles appeared to come on run plays and immediately after the catch. Linebackers and corners consistently whiffed on halfbacks and left it up to Poyer and Hyde to stop the bleeding deep in the secondary. A cornerback with a high ceiling in coverage that’s also an elite tackler could be just what the doctor ordered. That’s especially true since CB2 is one of the biggest tasks on Brandon Beane’s offseason checklist.
Great in Coverage
Whether we’re talking man or zone, Taylor holds his own. He excels in press-man coverage and can use his big frame to disrupt passing lanes in zone. His size and speed allow him to cover a large portion of the field in zone schemes. The only thing stopping him from being a Day 2 draft pick is that he has trouble using his athleticism to turn defended passes into turnovers.
I genuinely don’t know how well that can be taught at the next level, so I won’t assume that the Bills can fix that part of his game. But as I said, we need a reliable CB2 opposite the franchise cornerstone in Tre White. Taylor can at the very least, be reliable, as he’s very good at bringing down receivers after the catch. Limiting yards after catch from receivers going at the Bills’ CB2… I think back to the Tennessee game. That must change.
His football IQ is fantastic as well. Too often last year, the Bills had blown coverage assignments. Taylor passes off receivers in coverage with ease, and he’s great at reading his counterparts’ body language.
A Physical Defender
When I watch him, I think back to when Zack Moss said that he likes to make defenders make “business decisions”. Keith Taylor is someone who won’t shy away from using his body, even against players like Zack Moss. It only makes sense that he models his game after one of the most notoriously physical DBs in the NFL.
“I watch a lot of Jalen Ramsey. I think we’re pretty similar from a technique standpoint. I would love my tackling to get like his. He’s a real gritty guy,” Taylor said in a pre-draft interview. This physicality makes him an extremely attractive prospect to a team like the Bills, who hemorrhaged yards and touchdowns to running backs last year.
“When things don’t go right in practice, all the younger guys are going to be looking to him…”
JIMMY LAKE, HUSKIES HEAD COACH, FORMER DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
I love going back and listening to old interviews in the draft process. I feel like that’s one of the few ways you can really get to know a prospect, without consistently watching his tape over his college career. On many occasions, reporters asked former Huskies defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake (current Head Coach) about Keith Taylor. The answers and insight always revolved around Taylor as a leader and a student.
Lake constantly praised Taylor for how often he came into his office to just talk, learn about football, and pick apart his game. He’s extremely self-critical, and he’s a competitor. He’s always ready to pounce on a new opportunity, which is exactly what he did in 2018 when starting CB Jordan Miller was sidelined with a pretty gruesome leg injury. Not only did Washington lose an important piece to that defense when Miller went down. They also lost a leader on the field. But with Taylor stepping into a starting role, the Huskies gained a new leader in the process.
“He’s got to be a vocal guy for us. We’ve lost some vocal guys this last year and now he’s the guy… For him, it’s going to be more of that leadership role. When things don’t go right in practice, all the younger guys are going to be looking to him now. He’s one of the older guys,” Lake said. Taylor was up for the challenge and made his presence known as someone the locker room could count on in the face of adversity, despite, like Tremaine Edmunds, being more of a silent leader.
Keith Taylor is a reliable cornerback who leads by example. There’s a reason he’s expected to be drafted on Day 3 of the 2021 NFL Draft. That being said, I think he’s a great value who could help the Bills where they were hurting all last season, especially if they miss out on cornerback in the first two days.
Wake’s 2021 NFL Draft Prospect Countdown (Past Articles):
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