Jonathan Taylor, who amassed the most rushing yards through three seasons of any running back in FBS history, doesn’t think he has figured everything out as a football player.
He spoke with humility, awareness and understanding on Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, where he told reporters he hopes to hit the 4.4 range in the 40-yard dash.
Here are some of Taylor’s remarks, which were made in response to separate questions (hence the *snip* notes between the quotes). Taylor spoke about the flaws he needs to address, the elements of his situation which make him optimistic, and some of the keys for his evolution as a running back in the NFL:
“Freshman year was not my best year with that. Cleaned it up sophomore year a bit; you still want to eliminate those. Going into junior year, I had a couple mishaps. Some with the wildcat with me and Aron Cruickshank, had one with Nebraska where the ball was a bit behind, caught it one-hand, defender on the hip, tried to bring it in. You never want those kinds of mishaps to happen but as far as those fumbles when you’re in traffic, trying to fight for extra yards, that’s when you have to be technically sound.”
*snip*
“Those guys did a great job of giving you the knowledge of what you need to do to prepare your body as well as putting you in position to prepare your body for the workload of the season,” Taylor said. “So, I really think that’s kudos for giving guys the knowledge for recovery. Things you need to do before a game, after a game, in the offseason to prepare you for that workload.”
*snip*
“One of the biggest things is being effective on third down. A lot of guys think Wisconsin football is power football and outside zone schemes, which it is. Coach (Paul) Chryst did a great job of making an emphasis point to put me in space to be able to showcase that ability.”
*snip*
“I really don’t feel disrespected. On film, usually when a bigger guy is fast, it kind of looks like he’s really smooth and it doesn’t look like he’s moving as fast, which makes sense. But you look at the film and I’m running away from people.”