Tag: Ike Taylor

The 10 best Louisiana born players who didn’t play at LSU

Here are 10 of the best Louisiana-native players this century who left the state for college.

LSU does a good job at keeping talent in-state.

As the only Power Five program in Louisiana, LSU has a unique advantage shared by only a few other major programs. It hasn’t been perfect, though. There have been big misses.

Some of these players LSU tried to recruit and struck out. Others flew under LSU’s radar but went on to be NFL stars.

Here, we’re going to look at the 10 best Louisiana-born players this century that didn’t don the purple and gold. We begin with a big-name quarterback who ended up at a division rival.

Former Steeler tells TMZ ‘Seven’s got to change,’ if he returns to Pittsburgh

Does Roethlisberger return this coming season has been a hot topic, and who better than the outspoken Ike Taylor to offer his take?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in limbo with their quarterback situation. While contract talks between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger are reported to be taking place this week, as it stands, there’s a lot of unknown.

Does Roethlisberger return this coming season has been a hot topic, and who better than the outspoken Ike Taylor to offer his take?

Taylor, who spent 11 seasons with the Steelers and 10 with Big Ben, recently spoke with TMZ about what we’ve all noticed over the past few seasons — Roethlisberger is slowing down, which says a lot because he was never fast.

The former cornerback points to the youth in the AFC North — Joe Burrow, Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson — as the reason the 38-year-old should call it quits.

“You’re setting [the Steelers] back a year or two or three [with a comeback],” Taylor said about Roethlisberger returning. “The reason why I think you’re setting them back is because you’ve seen the progression in Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow — before he got hurt — and Baker Mayfield.”

“So, we’re talking about three young quarterbacks in one division. Who you going to pick last?”

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Taylor has nothing but respect for Roethlisberger and the Hall of Fame career he’s produced in Pittsburgh. But he knows from experience when it’s time to call it a career.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with shutting that thing down,” said Taylor. “It’s hard for a lot of people to shut it down. It’s hard.”

Should Ben come back to play this season, Taylor has some advice: Work to get in shape this offseason and gain some mobility.

“I think if Seven [Roethlisberger] wants to come back, Seven has got to get on this Tom Brady regimen,” Taylor said. “He’s got to really hone-in in the offseason and get some of his mobility back.”

“Seven” could never physically compare to the 43-year-old Brady, but it’s wise for Roethlisberger to think outside the pocket.

“In the NFL, unless you’ve got an offensive line like Tom Brady’s, you can’t be a pocket quarterback. They’re becoming extinct right now.”

The trouble is, Pittsburgh’s offensive line isn’t like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Far from it. It’s one of the many areas where the team needs to improve this offseason if they have postseason aspirations.

“Seven’s got to change,” Taylor continued. “Big Ben has to tell the offensive coordinator, ‘We need to run the ball.’ Seven won Super Bowls with a good defense and having a good running game. Seven needs to go tell Matt Canada, ‘Hey, bro, we’ve got to establish a run game.’”

I’m pretty sure Canada doesn’t need Big Ben to tell him that Pittsburgh needs to commit and stick to the run. Mending the run game is one of the reasons Canada was promoted in the first place.

As for whether Roethlisberger should retire — I’d rather see the Steelers more prepared for Roethlisberger’s departure than where they’re at now with Mason Rudolph. As long as Big Ben can still put up the numbers, which was evident last season, he should keep playing. But his days are certainly numbered, and Pittsburgh needs to get their ducks in a row for that inevitable day.

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Remembering Pittsburgh Steelers training camp fights from the past

Skirmishes are commonplace in offseason practice. Here, Steelers Wire takes a look at past fights from Steelers training camps.

This week marks the second week of Steelers 2020 training camp, and a fight has yet to be reported (c’mon guys, get on that!). Since we have nothing new to report on the scuffle front — at least until they put on pads on the 17th — let’s take a look back at some past camp rumbles.

Antonio Brown, Ike Taylor

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

During practice, there’s no other way to really prep for in-game matchups than team defense versus offense and vise versa.

Two players that were well-known for getting into it multiple times during camp were wide receiver Antonio Brown and cornerback Ike Taylor.

In 2013, the series of scuffles usually started and ended with a pass from Ben Roethlisberger. In one altercation, Brown and Taylor were wrestling for a pass in the end zone when AB was thrown to the ground. When Brown got up, he threw a punch at Taylor. When practice ended, Taylor went after Brown. It took multiple players and general manager Kevin Colbert to break up the brawl.

Though neither player spoke to the media after practice, head coach Mike Tomlin had said, “We’re competitors… those things happen.”

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Former Steelers CB Ike Taylor talks about his preferential treatment by Mike Tomlin

Ike Taylor talks about how he had no rules with Mike Tomlin.

If you were to make a list of the best cornerbacks to ever play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who is in your top five? If you don’t include Ike Taylor, you probably weren’t paying attention. Taylor spent all 12 of his NFL seasons with the Steelers after the team drafted this converted running back in the third round of the 2003 NFL draft.

In a recent interview, Taylor spoke about what life was like with head coach Mike Tomlin and his responses were, well enlightening.

Well, I’m trying to think of how to say this. Porter was Cowher’s guy. But when Tomlin let me do stuff Porter was like, “I thought I had it good with Cowher!”

In training camp, he had so much trust in me. He just told me not to make him look bad. And I didn’t. He gave me a long leash and sometimes just took the leash off. He had so much trust in me.

I did so much stuff, man. Let me put it to you like this. I didn’t have to break any rules. I couldn’t break any rules, because I didn’t have any to break!

This is fascinating information given how things went down with former Steeler Antonio Brown. Given his antics since leaving the Steelers, most assumed Tomlin gave Brown tons of leeway for his entitled attitude and did it to keep him on track on the field. It sounds like Brown wasn’t the only player who Tomlin have a very long leash to during that same period of time.

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