News & Notes: Taylor Takes New Approach

[The President]

www.redskins.com/news/newsDetail.jsp?id=28082

When Sean Taylor first arrived in the NFL in 2004, he didn't take the game of football so seriously, especially in terms of nutrition, training and film study.
He does now. And he is poised to have his best season, even after a 2006 season that earned him Pro Bowl recognition despite occasional struggles in pass coverage.

"I take this [game] very seriously," Taylor told reporters on Thursday, in a rare media session at Redskins Park. "This is something we do. It's almost like you play a kid's game for a king's ransom.

"If you don't take it seriously enough, one day you're going to say, 'I could have done this' or 'I could have done that.' So I just say that I'm healthy right now and I'm going into my fourth year, so why not do the best that I can?

"Whether it's eating right, whether it's training myself right, or whether it's studying harder--it's whatever I can do to better myself."

During training camp, it has been evident that Taylor is leaner. He dropped to 212 pounds last offseason, from 232 last year, as coaches emphasized speed. He now says he weighs about 225 pounds.

Playing in his first Pro Bowl changed the 24-year-old Taylor, the Redskins' first-round pick (fifth overall) in the 2004 NFL Draft.

"Hawaii was definitely an experience I will never forget," he said. "It was a good experience. You can't explain it. You would have to go there to figure it out as a player. I'm just glad I got to meet players from different teams and just know that it was something different football.

"When we had our time off, we hung out and talked about totally different things other than football."

Even Taylor's coach, Gregg Williams, has noticed a change in him.

"He got a chance to be at the Pro Bowl," Williams said. "And the impact that some of those guys had on him over there has kind of lit a fire underneath him. He's come back with personal goals and personal improvement things."

Taylor had his best NFL season in 2006, finishing with a team-high 129 tackles (89 solo). He started 16 games and logged one interception, three forced fumbles and 17 special teams tackles.

This year, Taylor will play free safety in Williams' defense, opposite rookie LaRon Landry.

Coaches say that giving Taylor singular responsibility as a free safety will help simplify the game.

He responds that he'll play with the same purpose, whether it's as a free safety, strong safety or linebacker. He's a football player, after all.

"We've had some acquisitions like Fred Smoot," he said. "Our corners are back healthy as far as Shawn Springs and Carlos Rogers. We're just trying to get a unit out there that's going to play.

"I think we're very deep as far as linebackers go, as far as defensive linemen go, and as far as safeties go. Everybody looks crisp. We're just taking off with that."


-- CAMP ENDS...OR DOES IT?
Thursday's practice was the final one listed on the Redskins' training camp schedule.

So that means the Redskins broke camp on Thursday, wrapping up with an early afternoon session.

Not so fast, says Joe Gibbs.

"I never announce when the end of camp is," he said. "The last time I did, I got a dorm all torn up."

Even though there was no announcement, coaches and players had long figured that Thursday was the close of camp.

After practice, coaches and players hosted a "Rookie Show" in the auditorium at Redskins Park. Rookies had to imitate the mannerisms of coaches, all in good fun.

"Nobody will see this but the Redskins," Fred Smoot said. "If you don't have a uniform on, or you're not a referee, you can't get in."


-- CARTWRIGHT: HAMSTRING INJURY
Running back Rock Cartwright suffered a minor hamstring injury and was held out of Thursday's practice.

If Cartwright is held out of Saturday's preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, then backups Derrick Blaylock, Marcus Mason and Dee Brown could see significant action.

Said Joe Gibbs, referring to Blaylock, Mason and Brown: "Every time somebody gets in there, that is their chance. They know that it is on film and that we will see how they play. So that is their time to shine."

Ladell Betts is still expected to start in place of Clinton Portis, who is unlikely to play due to knee tendonitis.

[The President]

Taylor takes football more serious? He is gonna kill some one...hopefully TO ;D

I love the rookies making fun of the coaches, sounds like the team is all together.

[The President]

Looks like the post as the same story...kind of

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081602820.html

By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2007; E01



In a rare interview session with members of the media, Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor confirmed yesterday what his teammates and coaches have been saying about him since this spring: He has intensified his preparations for this season by improving his diet and spending more time studying game film.

"It's almost like we play a kid's game for a king's ransom, and if you don't take it seriously enough, one day you're going to say, 'Oh, I could have did this, or I could have did that.' " Taylor said. "I'll just say that I'm healthy right now, and I'm going into my fourth year, so why not do the best that I can? Whether it's eating right, whether it's training myself right, or whether it's studying harder. It's whatever I can do to better myself."

The Redskins said Taylor, a former fifth overall pick out of Miami, appears more mature and more comfortable as a public figure. Teammates have marveled at his conditioning; he is more svelte and less bulky in his chest and shoulders (he has cut down on fat intake and is eating lots of fish, teammates said). Taylor casts as intimidating and imposing figure as ever on the field, but seems built as much for speed as for contact now. The Redskins list him at 212 pounds, and he was listed at 232 pounds in last year's media guide, but Taylor countered by saying, "I'm the same weight [as last year], 225."

Gregg Williams, assistant head coach-defense, believes that a trip to the Pro Bowl as an alternate in February, where Taylor was surrounded by the best in the game, has the safety aspiring to new heights, and Taylor did not entirely rebuff that notion, either.

"I like the fact that I got to meet other players from different teams, and just knowing it was something other than football -- it was football, but when we had our time off we talked and we talked about totally different things from football," Taylor said.

Taylor is the most mysterious individual on the team, allowing very few people into his inner sanctum, and is wary of reporters. Taylor talked to the press only twice last season, usually rebuffing interview requests in a friendly enough manner. Even his own teammates sometimes wonder precisely what is on his mind. "He keeps to himself a lot, but he's a great teammate," defensive end Renaldo Wynn said.

Trust must be earned over time, and in his world people are often seen as being with him or against him, teammates said. He can be moody and aloof or approachable and cheery, depending on the day, so it was not unexpected that he suddenly chose a perfectly random afternoon for the brief interview session, surprising even the Redskins' public relations staff, which was scurrying to find a tape recorder to document the moment.

The Redskins are desperate for more playmakers on defense after setting a modern record with just 12 takeaways in 2006, and Williams has curtailed the complexity of his defense to cater more to the natural athleticism of players like Taylor. He called Taylor the greatest athlete he has ever worked with and likes the early returns of the new defensive scheme.

"It's been fun to see his comfortability right now in what we're doing defensively because of removing a lot of extra stuff," Williams said.

To that end, Taylor is now playing "center field" as a free safety, hanging deep in the secondary to make plays on the ball and brutalize receivers. Taylor picked off four passes as a rookie but has just three interceptions in 31 games since -- one less than departed safety Ryan Clark in that span -- but played down the significance of his new role as the designated free safety. "I'm a safety -- I play free, strong, whatever you ask me to play," Taylor said.

His coaches admit that a rotating cast of starting safeties next to Taylor has not aided his development or helped bring him out of his shell.

Clark, who was allowed to leave in free agency after the 2005 season, is the only player to start even the equivalent of a half-season's worth of games with Taylor. Clark made 22 starts next to him, while Adam Archuleta, who failed here last season and was traded in the offseason, has the second-most starts alongside Taylor (seven). Players and coaches stressed their belief that Taylor is craving stability with a long-term partner, and the coaches broke their edict of not starting rookies right away in order to get LaRon Landry, April's sixth overall pick, on the field with Taylor from the onset.

Clark was Taylor's closest friend on the team, and losing him in free agency was a blow, numerous team members believe. Some link Taylor's erratic play to losing the only real partner he ever had in the secondary -- calling Clark a stabilizing force for him -- but Taylor, predictably, played down the development.

"I don't think it's a who-I-feel-comfortable-with type of situation," Taylor said. "I don't think anybody in the NFL is tied to each other."

Taylor declined to specify if he still speaks to Clark, calling it a "personal" matter, but Clark, speaking on his cellphone from camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers, said they remain friends, although their communication can be as sporadic as Taylor's interaction with members of the media.

"He texts me out of blue sometimes," said Clark, who will return to FedEx Field with Pittsburgh on Saturday. "Sean talks to me on his own time, which I respect, and a lot of the time I text him and he doesn't text back. Then he'll hit me back weeks later and say, 'What's up?' He lets me know he appreciates me as a person, and we're still cool. We never talk too much about football, just staying focused on life and our families and things in general.

"Sometimes guys just click and we did. I didn't want anything from him, and he knew that, and I genuinely care about him and I still do keep him in my prayers. I want to see him do well and it was great to see him go to the Pro Bowl and get his due, but I worry about perceptions people have of him. He's really a good, quiet kid, and he knew I understood that about him, and we ended up becoming close."