{"id":156793,"date":"2024-01-01T09:32:19","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T14:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=156793"},"modified":"2024-01-01T09:32:19","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T14:32:19","slug":"2024-nfl-draft-jerzhan-leonard-taylor-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/01\/01\/2024-nfl-draft-jerzhan-leonard-taylor-report\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 NFL Draft: Leonard Taylor Scouting Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><strong>Leonard Taylor NFL Draft Overview<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miami\u2019s Leonard Taylor has spent the last three seasons living in opposing backfields. A former Five-Star recruit, Taylor signed with the University of Miami. He wasted no time becoming a nightmare for offenses and was excellent his Freshman season. Taylor was poised for a breakout in 2022 and absolutely delivered. In 2022, Taylor logged ten tackles for loss for the Hurricanes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jordan_Reid\/status\/1683823697570791426?s=20<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2023, Taylor had an injury that caused him to miss some time and saw a dip in production. Regardless, his impact remained the same, and routinely opened up plays for other members of Miami\u2019s defensive line. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/sports\/college\/acc\/university-of-miami\/article282442683.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">declared for the 2024 NFL draft<\/a> and opted to skip Miami&#8217;s bowl game. The lack of statistical production in 2023 should not dissuade a team from drafting him early. Taylor will get first-round buzz, but may fall into the early second round.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Position: Interior Defensive Line<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Height: 6\u20193\u201d (Unofficial)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weight: 307 lbs (Unofficial)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">School: Miami<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Leonard Taylor 2024 NFL profile\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n<h4><strong>Strengths<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incredibly explosive for the position, can teleport into the backfield\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well built, not much bad weight on his frame<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not just a bull-rusher, has an array of pass-rush moves\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can overwhelm blockers with converting speed to power<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High motor player, who just never stops going<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has the strength and discipline to two-gap<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dominant in the ACC at age 18<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wins early in the rep and completely blows up plays<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Weaknesses<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At just about 300 pounds, will be regularly giving up mass on the interior\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of length\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can get washed down in the run game, leaving gaping holes open<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will be successfully double-teamed due to his lack of great mass<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has shown an array of moves, but does not consistently have a plan of attack<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NFL Comparison: Christian Barmore<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Projection: Picks 45-75<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best Fits: Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Bottom Line on Leonard Taylor<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miami\u2019s Leonard Taylor is the type of player the NFL wants. There is no bigger disturbance to an NFL passing game than interior pressure. Taylor is the type of player who can create havoc up the middle. His explosiveness and quick-twitch ability to get into the backfield is the type of disruption that NFL defenses are looking for. No one wants to watch quarterbacks step up into a clean pocket and shred secondaries. That is where players like Leonard Taylor step in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/PFF_Steve\/status\/1689740666371235840?s=20<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The explosion off the line of scrimmage is what truly makes Taylor stand out. He can be the disruptor that will completely alter how a football game goes. Where he falls in this class remains a question. Taylor is virtually a lock to go after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/10\/04\/two-idl-draft-trend\/\" target=\"_self\">Illinois\u2019 Jer\u2019Zhan Newton<\/a>. However, Taylor may also see himself going after Texas star defensive tackle T&#8217;Vondre Sweat. Regardless of where he goes, he has the potential to be an incredibly impactful player.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Andy Lewis-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Jer\u2019Zhan Newton gets all of the love in the interior defensive line class, there is another player with star potential: Leonard Taylor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4912,"featured_media":156916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,54],"tags":[10073,31994,40],"class_list":["post-156793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-editorials","tag-2024-nfl-draft","tag-leonard-taylor","tag-nfl"],"modified_by":"Will Koshover, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}