The Eagles go from a complete surprise in Round 2 with Jalen Hurts to picking a need position at LB and Dayvion Taylor. Dayvion Taylor went from playing only two games in high school because of his religious affiliation as a Seventh Day Adventist, which means it’s mandatory to rest on the Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday). Since he only had two games of tape he was forced to enroll into a small Mississippi JUCO where he started to stand out. Colorado noticed him and now he’s a 3rd round draft pick.
That’s an awesome story and it’s even better when you learn more about his journey to being drafted by the Eagles tonight. He basically had to teach himself football on the fly during JUCO and studied long hours of film at Colorado to learn the game.
Taylor went into overdrive with long hours of studying playbooks and game film well into the late hours of nights before games. Growing at the next level did not always come easy. Taylor recalls it being “the most difficult lesson” of his football journey.
“Actually learning the game of football and how to be a great teammate was key for me,” Taylor noted. “Since I was new to the game, I had to learn so much in a short amount of time. It was difficult, but I appreciate the process of being able to develop.”
All of the extra time spent working on his technique translated into improvement for Taylor on the field. He became one of Colorado’s senior leaders last year, finishing his college career with a total of 136 tackles, 20 tackles for loss and two sacks, nine pass deflections, three fumble recoveries and a defensive touchdown. He did most of that learning on the fly, and once everything clicked, he was arguably CU’s best defensive player.
Think about that. Davion Taylor didn’t really know a lick of football. Worked his ass off to get a D-1 scholarship in the Pac 12 and turned that into a 3rd round NFL Draft pick. I don’t know how he’ll translate onto the field, but it definitely won’t be for lack of effort. Here’s hoping he’s apart of a Linebacking core of the future.
What a night it’s been. We’ve still got a lot to do and with three 4th’s, a 5th, and a 6th tomorrow.
P.S. It’s never good when you can’t pull a sufficient highlight tape of your 3rd round pick off YouTube easily. Davion is already failing the YouTube test.
