J.J. Taylor has been 5-foot-6 for about the same length of time as he’s been getting tired of questions asking about his height.
"I guess I can say just around about high school because I haven’t grown since," Taylor said. "I’ve been the same height since high school and at that point it’s about me performing on the field and not the things I can’t control."
Taylor is a 5-6, 185-pound running back, a bowling ball that’s ready to explode [...]
J.J. Taylor has been 5-foot-6 for about the same length of time as he’s been getting tired of questions asking about his height.
"I guess I can say just around about high school because I haven’t grown since," Taylor said. "I’ve been the same height since high school and at that point it’s about me performing on the field and not the things I can’t control."
Taylor is a 5-6, 185-pound running back, a bowling ball that’s ready to explode any time he’s involved in a play. New England Patriots RB coach Ivan Fears has compared the undrafted free agent to former Pat and similarly-statured Dion Lewis, but Taylor maintains he isn’t trying to be a Lewis clone.
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He’s trying to be J.J. Taylor.
"I just try and model my game after myself. Not to be just thinking about me but the play style I have has to be different," he said. "You can model yourself after dudes that have similarities but there’s not many backs that are small in the league right now. There’s a few.
"I just try and do what I do and learn from teammates and coaches and go from there."
Taylor was a versatile back for four years at Arizona, breaking out his redshirt sophomore season with 1,434 yards rushing in 2018. In his final season for the Wildcats, Taylor ran for 721 yards and caught 32 passes for 289 yards. He finished his career with 3,262 rushing yards and caught 62 passes for 487.
He was small in high school and succeeded. He was small in college and succeeded. Now he’s trying to do the same with the Patriots.
"At this point for me it’s not about proving other people wrong. For me it’s proving people right and proving myself right that I can do what it is I set my mind to," Taylor said. "If I say I’m going to do something and get better at it then that’s exactly what I’m going to try and do."
Taylor would be a versatile weapon to have on the roster and while he’d prefer you not compare him to Lewis, it’s hard not to. Lewis was crafty runner and terrific pass-catcher and Taylor seems to be in the same mold, working a lot with running backs coach Troy Brown.
"I spend a lot of time with him, especially as a rookie – we have to come in early and do things like that – and that’s the one person that I get to meet with on a day-to-day basis, one-on-one," Taylor said. "And just learn from his perspective how things should be done and him watching from the sidelines correcting me and stuff like that, it’s just helping me out a lot and I believe it’s helping all the other backs as well."
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