Jaguars Set to Sign Sign Former XFL LB Willie Taylor
The Jacksonville Jaguars are bringing in reinforcements at a position of need, signing outside linebacker Willie Taylor according to the official Twitter account of the Eastern Kentucky football team.
Taylor played five years of collegiate football mostly with Washington State, but transferred to the Colonels for his senior season, accumulating a career high 37 total tackles, three defended passes, and two sacks in 12 games.
Following his collegiate days, Taylor opted for an unconventional route to the NFL, latching on with the XFL’s Arlington Renegades while remaining eligible to be selected in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Taylor continued his stretch of impactful play this past season, recording four sacks, two forced fumbles, and eight tackles for loss in 12 games with the Renegades.
While Taylor went undrafted in April, he finds himself in a prime opportunity in a Jaguars linebacker room that is in need of depth options at the outside linebacker position following the losses of Arden Key and Dawuane Smoot in free agency.
While the Jaguars drafted Yasir Abdullah in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft to help mitigate the team's losses at the position, they need all the help they can get after ranking near the bottom of the league in sacks last season.
"I mean listen, you're always looking but we got some young players that we're excited about and we got to give them opportunities to perform and we do have some really good depth at the D-line position now and I think what's going to do is going to create some really good second and third level competition and see who can work into that rotation," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said last week.
"Obviously extending Roy, extending Devon, Foley going into year two with us. Those three guys are going to be the guys that we have to lean on. But then you know, follow that up with guys like Adam Gotsis and Ledbetter's in there and you know, just start seeing some of the younger players and now Yasir, you know draft a guy like Yasir who can play on the edge and De'Shaan Dixon be able to chance who was on the 53 last year, to be able to maybe move him inside and give him some reps from inside.
"So there's a lot of combinations of things that we're going to experiment with once we get into OTAs and training camp. But the depth is there and it's a group that we can really, I think create some good competition with."
