Taylor Wins Battle at Receiver
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jake Kumerow had rapport with Aaron Rodgers.
Reggie Begelton came with Canadian hype.
Malik Turner had experience from last year in Seattle
Instead, in the free-for-all that was the battle to make the Green Bay Packers’ roster at receiver, Malik Taylor appears to be the last man standing.
With Saturday’s roster cuts starting with the news of Kumerow’s release, Taylor was the surprise winner as the team selected its initial 53-man roster.
The victory is the latest chapter in his unusual path to the NFL.
At Ferris State, a Division II school in Big Rapids, Mich., Taylor caught 47 passes for 1,017 yards – a glitzy 21.6-yard average – and five touchdowns as a sophomore in 2016 and 61 passes for 906 yards and six touchdowns as a junior in 2017. However, he missed almost all of his senior season due to a hamstring injury that ruined his draft prospects.
“I have no idea what I would have been doing, even starting back my senior year, not being able to play,” Taylor said during a recent Zoom call with reporters. “Especially having goals to go to the NFL, when you’re a D2 guy and you can’t play your senior year, that just adds onto the stress and how hard it is to get to this level.”
Taylor wound up going undrafted last year and signed with Tampa Bay following a tryout at its rookie camp, but only lasted a couple weeks. He was signed by the Packers about a week before the start of training camp last summer. While he didn’t make the roster, he showed enough to spend the entire season on the practice squad.
“I had the mind-set to do everything right, to do all the little extra things,” Taylor said. “Obviously, they saw something in me. Thank God. I’m glad that I landed here. Last year, it was a big thing for me to come into the NFL, obviously from a D-II school. Just the mind-set you have to have and all the extra things that comes with this league. I came in at practice every day and did perform to the best of my ability.”
What they saw continued in training camp this year. Taylor is an intriguing blend of size (6-foot-1, 216 pounds) and speed (4.46 at his pro day in 2019). Kumerow made his mark not just as a receiver but for his willingness to do the dirty work. That could be Taylor’s niche, too.
“Obviously, this team likes a certain type of receiver,” he said. “Blocking is a big part of our offense. That’s something that we really hone in on. I think Coach Vrays (Jason Vrable), our wide receiver coach, does a great job of making sure that we’re prepared out there during practice and that’ll translate into the games. They obviously look for a certain type of receiver, ones who can block. We dig in at the details and Coach Vrays has done a great job of helping us out and fixing all the little things to go out there and perform like we need to.”
While it’s a misnomer to call this the “final” 53-man roster, the Packers at the moment will take Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Tyler Ervin, Equanimeous St. Brown and Taylor into the week as it gets ready for the season-opening game at Minnesota on Sept. 13.
“My mind-set is still going out there every day, doing the best that I can, controlling what I can control,” Taylor said last week, though what he said resonates today. “I’m sure you guys know that and it probably sounds cliché, but that’s really all you can do is go out there and trust it, play fast, play comfortable and trust your training, as Coach LaFleur always says.”
