Darrell Lamond Taylor (born March 24, 1997) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

outside linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Early life and high school

Taylor grew up in

Hopewell, Virginia Hopewell is an independent city surrounded by Prince George County and the Appomattox River in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 23,033. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Hopewell with Prin ...

and attended Hopewell High School, where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. Rated a four-star recruit, Taylor committed to play college football at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

over offers from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

College career

Taylor played at the University of Tennessee from 2015–2019 under coaches

Butch Jones Lyle Allen "Butch" Jones Jr. (born January 17, 1968) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at Arkansas State University. Jones previously served as a special assistant to the head coach and offensive analyst at the Univ ...

and

Jeremy Pruitt Jeremy Pruitt (born May 28, 1974) is an American football coach who most recently was a senior defensive assistant for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the head coach at the University of Tenne ...

. Taylor

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his true freshman season. As a redshirt freshman, he made nine tackles (one for loss) in eight games played. Taylor missed two games of his redshirt sophomore year due to a suspension for an altercation with a teammate. He finished the season with 27 tackles, four tackles for loss, three sacks and two forced fumbles. As a redshirt junior, Taylor led the team with eight sacks and 11 tackles for loss with 36 total tackles. Taylor entered his redshirt senior year on the

Chuck Bednarik Award The Chuck Bednarik Award is presented annually to the defensive player in college football as judged by the Maxwell Football Club to be the best in the United States. The award is named for Chuck Bednarik, a former college and professional Ame ...

watchlist. Taylor finished the season tied for second in the SEC with 8.5 sacks and led the Volunteers with 10 tackles for loss along with 46 total tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and four passes defended. Taylor finished his collegiate career with 118 tackles, 26.5 tackles for loss, and 19.5 sacks with six forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and seven passes defended in 38 games.

Professional career

Taylor was invited to the

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Footb ...

, but did not participate in any drills due to an offseason surgery. Taylor was selected by the

in the second round with the 48th pick in the

2020 NFL Draft The 2020 NFL Draft was the 85th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2020 NFL season. The first round was held on April 23, followed by the second and third rounds on April 24. The d ...

. He was placed on the active/

non-football injury list Non-football injury and non-football illness (NFI) are roster designations used in the National Football League (NFL) for players who are unable to practice as a result of conditions unrelated to football, or injuries that did not occur during NFL g ...

at the start of

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events, ...

on August 3, 2020. He was moved to the reserve/non-football injury list at the start of the regular season on September 5, 2020. He returned to practice on January 5, 2021, but the team did not activate him before the end of the season. On October 17, 2021, in a ''Sunday Night Football'' game against the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

, Taylor suffered what appeared to be a serious neck/head injury, and left the field injured on a stretcher under medical care. After the game, the Seahawks confirmed that Taylor had feeling in all of his extremities and that he was expected to fly back to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

with the rest of his team. He appeared in 16 games, of which he started five, as a rookie. He finished with 6.5 sacks, 37 total tackles (28 solo), one pass defensed, and one forced fumble.

References

External links

Seattle Seahawks bioTennessee Volunteers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Darrell 1997 births Living people People from Hopewell, Virginia Players of American football from Virginia American football linebackers American football defensive ends Tennessee Volunteers football players Seattle Seahawks players