With his NFL Draft stock up, Tennessee football’s Darrell Taylor could do the unthinkable. One analyst has the Volunteers edge rusher as a first-rounder.
Who saw this coming? As the splash playmaker for Tennessee football over the past two years, there was the potential for Darrell Taylor to have the highest NFL Draft stock of any Vols player in this 2020 class.
However, after missing the combine due to injury and revealing that he played all of last year banged up, it just didn’t seem like he would be a surefire bet. Over the last two weeks, though, for some reason, his stock has been rising rapidly.
Now, Taylor is firmly a third-rounder at least by most projections. On the day of the NFL Draft, though, one analyst even upped his expectations for Tennessee football’s edge rusher. Peter Schrager of NFL.com now has Taylor as a projected first-rounder.
Schrager projected Taylor going to the Seattle Seahawks with the 30th pick in a projected trade with the Green Bay Packers. If that happened, Taylor would be the highest pick from UT since Derek Barnett in 2017. Here’s what Schrager said about the situation.
"Taylor’s a name that’s been coming up a bunch over the last 48 hours. I’ve got him sneaking into the first round to a team that could use some more help up front."
Of course, Seattle may be a bit of a tricky place for Taylor. Despite the Seahawks needing an edge rusher, Taylor’s versatility is his selling point, and with a base 4-3 under defense, theirs system focuses on people who can be great at a couple things rather than be good at lots of things.
Still, Taylor may be great at rushing the passer. After all, playing at outside linebacker for Tennessee football over the past two years, he did have at least eight sacks while also double-digit tackles for a loss each time. But he was inconsistent the two years prior, lining up at defensive end in a 4-3.
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So there are two major questions if Taylor does end up going to Seattle. For starters, is he fast enough to play outside linebacker in a 4-3? Secondly, can he be physical enough to play defensive end in the Seahawks system?
On a positive note for him, though, Seattle is clearly good at scouting defensive players, and they are also good at developing them. Also, being a first-rounder, if he is taken that highly, will have them much more invested in him, meaning he has a great chance to succeed.
As a result, while there may be other landing spots for him, going to Seattle in the first round beats all of them. This wasn’t even on our radar for him, largely because we had no expectations of him being taken that high.
If it does happen, Tennessee football’s NFL Draft class could be a lot more impressive than anybody thought at the end of the season. Daniel Bituli and Jauan Jennings are both late-rounders who are proven producers, so they will be reliable. Nigel Warrior and Marquez Callaway are both being massively overlooked. Taylor, meanwhile, is the splashy star. Nobody saw that coming.