Amidst Defensive Woes, Darrell Taylor Helping Keep Seahawks' Pass Rush Relevant
RENTON, WA — Despite the defense's historically poor start to the season, the Seahawks have quietly featured a fairly effective pass rushing unit this year. And the man leading the charge may come as a surprise; Darrell Taylor, who, through the first five games of his career, leads the team in sacks (4.0) and total pressures (12).
“I feel like I’m doing alright," Taylor told reporters on Wednesday. "There are a lot more plays that can be made out there and I need to clean up my techniques, but I feel like I’m doing alright for my first five games, given that I didn’t get to play last year.”
Prior to his selection in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Taylor had surgery to repair the shin he injured in his senior year at the University of Tennessee. With that, the ailment was supposed to be put in the rearview mirror, but he was unable to shake it so easily. Every time there was a glimmer of hope he'd be able to return to the gridiron, another setback would occur. Eventually, as soon as he started to mount his comeback and made his way onto the practice field, the Seahawks' season abruptly ended by the hands of the Rams, effectively closing the chapter on Taylor's rookie campaign without a single snap played.
Having to wait another nine months for his next opportunity, Taylor continued to rebuild his strength and work on his craft. He participated in every offseason activity Seattle had to offer from rookie minicamp onward. Once the preseason arrived, he finally got his shot to play in a semi-real NFL game for the first time.
He was explosive at times in the team's first two exhibition matchups, but ultimately looked like someone who hadn't played football in nearly two years—understandably so. However, in the third and final dress rehearsal of the summer, Taylor found his groove and dominated his 32 snaps of action to the tune of 1.5 sacks on four pressures with a pair of tackles
Now, he's riding that momentum to a breakout campaign and is more than making up for lost time. And what he's been able to do as a pass rusher is only half the story; he's also shown great signs of improvement against the run game and has significantly contributed on special teams as well. He's doing it all and is beginning to truly come into his own as an all-around player. As a result, an uptick in usage appears to be in his immediate future.
“We didn’t have much information at all so that’s why I made such a big deal about what he did in the offseason," head coach Pete Carroll explained. "He’s really ready to be given more opportunities now and he’s gotten off to a really good start. He’s growing with us, he’s done a really good job on special teams which is way more of a statement than you guys may realize. For a young guy who is a pass rusher on the edge to be the first one down the field on the kickoff team, contribute on a great kickoff team, make plays, and get in on the punt team, shows that he’s all in. It’s just giving him more, so his play time and opportunities will increase. He’s earned that.”
“That’s definitely a good feeling to get to play more," Taylor said in response to his coach's statement. "You get more chances to put what you do on film.”
It's been a few years since the Seahawks have had an exciting, effective young pass rusher on their roster—the last being Frank Clark, who was traded to the Chiefs during the 2019 offseason. Ever since, they've scrambled to find more upside off the edge, but such endeavors ended in failure the past two seasons and their pass rush as a whole struggled mightily in that time. However, it appears they've finally found some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
With an offseason reboot at the position and Taylor becoming a revelation in the early going, the Seahawks find themselves tied for eighth in quarterback hits (24) and 11th in total pressures (88), per Pro Football Focus. The one problem is: they're not doing enough damage when they get into the backfield. As of now, they're in a seven-way tie for the 17th-most sacks in the NFL (10) with the 24th-lowest sack rate (4.90%).
There's also the issue of no other player besides Taylor standing out among the rest. The likes of Carlos Dunlap, Kerry Hyder, Benson Mayowa and others have all gone step-for-step with one another from a numbers standpoint while having their fair share of inconsistency woes.
Nevertheless, there's a silver lining to be found in an otherwise bleak five weeks for Seattle's defense with the growth of Taylor. But he and his teammates have to course correct as soon as possible to stay alive in the postseason race, especially with the offense losing star quarterback Russell Wilson for the foreseeable future. He's confident they will.
“That’s not even a question," Taylor began. "Obviously, we didn’t play our best games in the first five but that doesn’t stop us from being football players. We are correcting it and getting better each day. The practices that we have, we are making the most of our opportunities so that we can win the games on the weekend. I’m not worried about that, I have all of the confidence in the world that we are going to turn it around.”
Going up against one of the best pass blocking teams in the NFL—the Steelers—this Sunday night, Taylor will be tasked with his greatest challenge yet. But he's proved capable of stepping up in key situations, even at some of the Seahawks defense's lowest points this year, and seems to be only getting started.
“Definitely I proved to myself that I belong here and that all of my hard work that I did when I was in school paid off," Taylor assessed of his first five NFL games. "Everything I did last year paid off and even this offseason. Going through these first five games was definitely a challenge for me and I feel like I rose to the occasion.”
