Many NFL Draft analysts and radio hosts have expressed concern with Jonathan Taylor‘s NFL potential due to his college workload and ball security issues.
National FOX Sports Radio host Colin Cowherd is not one of them.
“There’s nothing I don’t like about him,” Cowherd said on his radio show. “He and Michael Pittman Jr. at USC are really the underrated guys in this draft for me.”
Taylor joined Cowherd on his show today to talk Wisconsin football, his mindset as a runner and development as a pass catcher, people who are critical about his workload and what made him fall in love with Madison, Wisconsin.
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Here are some of the highlights from the interview.
How Wisconsin develops “tough” NFL players
“It starts in the weight room,” Taylor said. “You have to the right mindset in order to attain new goals. Whether you want to bench heavier or squat heavier it starts with that mindset and it’s a training process we go through in order to get mentally and physically prepared for the season.”
Taylor’s mindset as a runner
“It all depends on the situation,” Taylor said. “When you’re on the field you know if a guy is a sure tackler, or if he likes to tackle low or if a guy shies away from contact. In your mind you know if you’re ready to go around him, you’re ready to go through him, you’re ready to run past him and you’re really ready to use every tool in your toolbox in order to get past the defender. But you definitely take pride, especially at a program like Wisconsin, in being able to dominate at the line of scrimmage and assert your dominance.”
Response to critics who express concern with his college workload
“Not only have I not missed a game but I haven’t missed a practice at all in my three years at the university due to injury,” Taylor said. “You kind of have to pick your poison. You obtain a certain amount yards and have these carries. But you have to say would you rather me have less of a career?”
His development as a pass catcher
“A lot of people think I had to work on catching the ball,” Taylor said. “When you think of Wisconsin football you think of power, you think of gap, you don’t really thinking about getting your back out into space and making plays through the air. Coach Chryst made it a constant effort to put that in the scheme and allow me to showcase that.”
His thoughts on his time in Madison
“I loved Madison at first sight,” Taylor said. “I got that college town feel. It wasn’t like a huge city feel like New York where it was endless but it definitely was an area where it was full of life but also you can feel the community vibe. People in Madison aren’t wearing green and gold, they’re wearing red and white.”
Taylor now awaits the NFL Draft which starts this upcoming Thursday as he’ll finally find out where he will start his professional career.