After a paid holiday in DC last year, Jason Taylor is back in Miami, where he spent the first 10 years of his career. But at 34, his role has changed. Taylor is no longer the focus of the defense, the pass-rushing specialist who averaged nearly 12 sacks a season during his time with the Dolphins.Instead, he'll be used sparingly, in an effort to keep him fresh, healthy, and productive. Via the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero:
The way the Dolphins figure it, there's no sense asking a soon-to-be 35-year-old guy to play 60 snaps a game and find out he's effective in maybe only 25 of them. So the idea is to pick and chose the right spots to use Taylor. The idea is to give him maybe 20-25 snaps per game.And at $1.1 million for one year, it's a good investment for the Dolphins. Pretty nifty work for Czar of Football Operations Bill Parcells, who shipped Taylor to the Redskins for a second-round pick a year ago, and had to out-recruit the Patriots and Jets for Taylor's services this time around. It's not often Bill Belichick loses out on a player. But that's what happened, and New England is still looking for a warm body to replace Mike Vrabel, now with the Chiefs. So what's next?
The Boston Globe's Mike Reiss writes that "Taylor might not have been the primary answer, but he could have been part of a combination with the current candidates on the roster, Pierre Woods (fourth year), Shawn Crable (second year), Vince Redd (second year), and Tully Banta-Cain (seventh year)."
Save Banta-Cain, who spent 2007-2008 in San Francisco but played in New England the previous four years, it's the same cast of characters who were part of the Patriots' patchwork defense a season ago. Hardly inspiring.
The Boston Herald's Karen Guregian thinks Crable, who spent his rookie season in injured reserve, "could be a wild card given his abilities." He could also be the next coming of Pierre Woods, which is fine if he's on special teams, less so if he's the starting outside linebacker.
Of course, Tom Brady's healthy knee mitigates most of these concerns. If he returns to his 2007 form, the Patriots could play with 10 defenders and still win 14 games. Regularly hanging 50 on opponents has a peculiar way of neutralizing defensive deficiencies. And with Taylor now in South Beach, maybe that's Belichick plan.
