There were plenty of good stories in Sunday afternoon’s opening day Patriots win over the Dolphins.
One of those was certainly the NFL debut of undrafted rookie free agent running back J.J. Taylor.
Visually notable because of his 5-6, 185-pound frame, it was Taylor’s performance that deserved the attention. The former Arizona star had 28 yards rushing on just four carries, including an 11-yard burst. He also added one catch for 4 yards.
Taylor took an impressive summer on the practice field and immediately turned it into success in game action. The diminutive young back clearly already has a fan in veteran running back’s coach Ivan Fears, who didn’t seem to be surprised by the effort against Miami.
“They were about what I hoped for and actually what I expected,” Fears said of his reaction during a Wednesday video conference with local reporters. “The guy’s a pretty good player. The guy’s really a good player, good runner. He sort of fits into that mold of small backs like [Darren] Sproles and those guys that have been very successful. But it’s early.
It really is early, to begin to tag any kind of title on him or anything like that. But I tell you what, we’re really happy to have him out there. The guy is busting his butt to get it done. So, yeah, we’re kinda happy with that.”
While Taylor’s size is certainly non-traditional for an NFL player – he’s even smaller than Sproles, the 5-6, 190-pounder who made three Pro Bowls over 183 games with the Chargers, Saints and Eagles from 2005-19 – Fears isn’t so sure that it’s a disadvantage for his young pupil.
“Let’s put it this way, he plays hide and seek very well with the guys. He is hard to find,” Fears said with a laugh of Taylor running behind his offensive line. “It is something that…yeah, hey, there are things that might happen. Who knows? Size could be an advantage for him. We never know. We love what he’s doing and the guy plays big for his size.”
On a team that hasn’t always been overly forthcoming with opportunities for young backs other than first-round picks – Damien Harris, James White and Shane Vereen are just a few names that saw limited action as rookies – Fears made it clear that New England doesn’t do anything to keep young runners from the field. Rather, it’s a true meritocracy in the Patriots committee backfield.
“Well I think you are sort of looking at it the wrong way. We don’t hold them back, we let them tell us what they’re going to be,” Fears declared. “That’s the way we’ve always been. We don’t hold anybody, we don’t try to hold them back, we don’t intentionally reduce their play or whatever. We let them determine it with what they do in practice. They show us. And when they get the chance on the field in live action they show us what they are going to be. J.J. had a very, very productive training camp. Very productive. The guy, after the first couple of days, was right on point, quite exciting. So we want to give him a chance. We wanted to give him a chance to see what he and do and he’s earned the chance to see more of what he can do. But it’s always the player. He starts with it and we just sort of follow his lead.”