The other part of this to me is that Taylor is extremely overrated. Taylor today is not Taylor of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006. When you are 33 years old you also arent even the guy you were when you were 32 in the NFL.
Taylor has always, imo, been a guy who sacrifices everything to rush the QB. Thats not so much a knock, as it is a statement of his abilities. His best use is as a one gap, rush the QB and worry about the run if you find it along the way, kind of guy. He has been used in that role, because he is not a good run defender.
When you translate it to our system its even more severe.
He must change positions. We simply NEVER will play a 255 lb player at DE in our system. He will have to convert to OLB. Before anyone suggests he has played OLB before, he hasn't. When Saban was their Taylor would be moved around to different alignments in order to help him rush the QB from different places on the field. That is NOTHING like BEING a 34 OLB. He may have line up in that spot at times, but all he was doing was being a standup DE who was told to onegap rush the QB. (sort of like when BB has aligned Vrabel at NT. do we really think Vrabel has 'played NT')
His numbers are declining, as are his skills. At 33 EVERYONE in the NFL except QBs or maybe WRs and an OL here and there are at a point where their skills are in decline.
Wanting Taylor brought here is the classic example of why so many teams have failed in FA.....acquiring a player because of what he was in his prime, after he is no longer in his prime.
Last year he had a career low in tackles.
I know, everyone is in love with sack stastistics (everyoine except me I guess) but lets really break that down.
The comments I read suggest that if Taylor were he he would single-handedly prevent any team from ever being able to throw on us, no one could block him, and he would spend all day sacking the QB.
Well, in HALF OF HIS GAMES LAST YEAR HE REGISTERED ZERO SACKS. In about 1/3 (5 of 16) he had One. In 3 games against the weak Jets, ravens, and Texans he had 2.
Do we need 2 sacks from Jason Taylor to beat the weak teams in the NFL? What value does he have when, a year younger, he couldn't get a sack at all in half of his games?
How do those sack numbers make up for being unable to play any position in our system properly, or being able to defend the run?
taylor also had less than 5 tackles in 10 of the 16 games too, including assists.
We need an OLB to play about 1000 plays next year (2 of them actually) we have thomas and Vrabel who we know can defend the run, cover, and rush the QB. In the best of all scenarios, replacing one with Jason Taylor will mean that we are worse against the run, worse in coverage, and there may be 2 times during the year out of those 1000 plays that he gets a sack and thomas or Vrabel wouldnt have.
Last year Taylor had:
56 tackles, (47 solo, 9 assist) 11 sacks and 4 passes defensed
Thomas had 78 (57,21) 6.5 and 8 (he also had 6 of those in the last 7 games when he played OLB instead of ILB, and added 2 more in 3 playoff games) so that is actually 8 sacks in 10 games at OLB which would equal 13 over a 16 game schedule
Vrable had 77(55,22) 12.5 and 0
Exactly what would we be improving by adding Taylor to this team?
One final thing, please avoid the 'he gets lots of pressure' argument because it has been shown over and over again that the amount of pressure a guy gets is almost exactly the same as the number of sacks he gets, in other words there really isnt such a thing as one guy who gets more pressure than another guy who gets just as many sacks.
Aging player, not nearly as productive as people want to think he is, coming out of a culture that was 1-15, with character and attitude problems who thinks he is a star, who is no better than what we already have at the position. Why do people want to acquire him again?
