Tag: Tyrone Taleni

Former Trojans’ paths to professional football take fascinating turns

Tyrone Taleni and Brett Neilon are two former Trojans taking unusual paths to pro football.

USC football players who have run their race in college are trying to stick on professional rosters. The road to pro ball is smooth and paved with gold for Caleb Williams, a No. 1 pick, but for a lot of other Trojans, the path is arduous and anything-but-glamorous. Former two-year USC Trojan defensive lineman Tyrone Taleni was selected in the first round of the Canadian Football League (CFL) draft by the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Brett Neilon — who did not play football in 2023 due to injuries — is trying to latch onto an NFL roster and has received a rookie minicamp invitation from the Kansas City Chiefs.

Tyrone Taleni, a former USC Trojan, was the third overall pick in the CFL draft.

Taleni spent two years with the Trojans in 2022 and 2023. He had 25 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, three quarterback hurries, and one forced fumble in 12 games and nine starts. In 2022, he was selected to the All-Pac-12 Second Team.

In 2023 he was benched and used as a rotational lineman with 11 tackles in 10 games, 0.5 tackles for loss, and 0.5 sacks.

The Western Samoan native started his career with Kansas State before coming to USC.

Brett Neilon was sidelined in 2023. If healthy after the injuries which hit him hard late in the 2022 season at USC, he could provide real value to an NFL team.

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Tyrone Taleni, who caused a big fumble in win over UCLA, will return for 2023 at USC

Tyrone Taleni, the transfer from Kansas State who made a key play vs UCLA in 2022, needs to improve considerably for the Trojans in 2023.

USC’s defensive line was largely Tuli Tuipulotu and an unremarkable supporting cast in 2022. Tuli was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. He certainly deserved that award. He did his very best to make USC’s defense a lot better than it otherwise would have been, especially after Eric Gentry got injured in the first Utah game on October 15.

Without Tuli doing his thing up front, USC’s defense — which cratered in the second half of the season — would have been far worse, and the Trojans wouldn’t have come close to winning 11 games. Tuli saved this defense when Gentry was unable to play.

This speaks to the lack of heft up front.

Kansas State transfer Tyrone Taleni wasn’t an amazing player for USC this past season, but he did make one very big contribution to the cause, his sack and forced fumble against UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson. On a night when Korey Foreman made a game-sealing interception against the Bruins, Taleni created a turnover for a USC defense which did manage to do one thing well this year: Take away the ball.

Taleni announced that he will return for the 2023 season at USC:

Taleni made a handful of important plays for USC, but now we need to see consistent, game-in and game-out production from him and other members of a defensive line which needs to get better.

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