Alontae Taylor knows there are some things he needs to work on more than others as he enters his first training camp with the New Orleans Saints.
But when he lays them out, some of his terms should come with a glossary. One of those terms? "Eyesy," or at least that's how I think it's spelled.
Taylor said press-man coverage is his "bread and butter," but he has a habit of getting too eyesy in zone, and it's one he needs to break. So what does that mean exactly?
"Just putting my eyes in the right place and keeping them there," Taylor said on SportsTalk this week with Bobby Hebert, Kristian Garic and Mike Detillier.
Listen to the full interview with Alontae Taylor in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"Sometimes you can read the quarterback and sometimes you’ve just got to kind of see the route concepts being ran and made by the receivers. … If I know I need to read the route pattern I just need to read the route pattern and not put my eyes in the backfield," Taylor continued. "And if I need to read the quarterback moreso and not so much more the pattern, then keep my eyes on the quarterback and not the pattern. That just comes, I feel like, with a lot of repetition."
Make sense now? Regardless, the answer alone is a pretty good indicator of what drew praise from head coach Dennis Allen before the team hit the break after minicamp last month. He said the second-round rookie out of Tennessee was ahead of expectations in terms of how he understood and approached the game. Listening to Taylor self-evaluate illustrates that perfectly.
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Taylor has always been a big hitter, he says, and that's something he'll continue to be at the NFL level. But he knows he needs to be a well-rounded coverage asset to make his greatest impact in Year 1 and beyond.
"I tend to jump things instead of just staying truly in my zone and that’s something I feel like I improved on in my zones in OTAs, rookie minicamp and veteran minicamp," Taylor said. "Really just wanting to continue where I left off before we went onto break because I feel like I was improving in that specific area."
Saints rookies officially reported to camp earlier this week, with veterans scheduled to join them on July 26, with practices starting the following day.
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MORE FROM ALONTAE TAYLOR
WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG TO WORK OUT ROOKIE DEAL?
Taylor was the final Saints rookie to sign his contract, with the deal officially inked earlier this week. But why?
“Just having conversations with my agent, it was just based off of percentage-wise as far as your third year, just kind of waiting on some of the other players who were drafted in front of me to kind of decide what they wanted to do and then just see where that percentage fell for me," Taylor said. "So just kind of playing the waiting game and just waiting for other guys to make those decisions instead of just settling with a low rate."
Taylor was one of several 2nd and 3rd rounders that hadn't come to terms until this week, and that's not a coincidence. First-round picks have the entirety of their 4-year deals guaranteed at a slotted rate, so there's really no negotiation to be had other than when and where they'll put pen to paper. Taylor's deal, however, is for $7.2 million over four years, with only $3.4 million guaranteed. Hence the more protracted negotiation.
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DO YOU KNOW THE PLAN FOR HOW YOU'LL BE USED IN THE DEFENSE?
“I haven’t sat down specifically and broke down like ’this is what you need to learn.’ Right now my job is to play corner and so I’m learning all the corner things. … The playbook is coming easy for me," Taylor said. "It’s just a natural thing and understanding the defense is really easy for me, so I can now start breaking down the nickel and the safety job because I feel like I know the corner position really well. And camp will give me the opportunity to see even more of that.”
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HOW IMPORTANT IS FILM STUDY TO YOU?
“Film study was something that I took more serious I could say my senior year [at Tennessee], understanding the offense a little bit better," Taylor said. "Playing in those, I would say, a little more simple defense at Tennessee. But I take a lot of pride in film. I feel like my senior year really showed me that what you see on film and get out there on the field and you can make plays just from seeing those things on film and writing them down. So that will continue while being here in New Orleans and learning from some of the vets on how to watch film as well.”